Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age

Kevin Boyle, a history professor, and National Book Award-winning author of "Arc of Justice: A Saga of Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age," has written the best true crime book I have ever read, including Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood." A Detroit native, Boyle tells one of the city's most important civil rights episodes - the September night in 1925 when black people took up arms to defend their home from a white mob. His narrative of the sensational murder trial, which ignited the Civil Rights Movement, is electrifying! Boyle's research is meticulous. He interweaves the incidents leading up to the murder, the police investigation, and the courtroom drama of the trial, with history that documents the volatile America of the 1920's. He re-creates the Sweet family's inspirational journey from slavery through the Great Migration to the middle class. "Arc Of Justice" reads like a suspense thriller! I was riveted to the page. I thought I was relatively well informed about the Civil Rights Movement. However, I was amazed at how little I did know, especially about the period before the mid-1950's. I learned so much from this book about the significant and fascinating history of the Great Migration and many of the events which took place afterwards, especially in the North during the 1920's."I have always been interested in the colored people. I had lived in America because I wanted to...The ancestors of the Negroes came here because they were captured in Africa and brought to America in slave ships, and had been obliged to toil for three hundred years without reward. When they were finally freed from slavery they were lynched in court and out of court, and driven into mean, squalid outskirts and shanties because they were black....I realize that defending Negroes, even in the North, was no boy's job, although boys were usually given the responsibility."With these words, Attorney Clarence Darrow, a civil libertarian, best known for defending John T. Scopes in the so-called "Monkey Trial," agreed to act as co-defense counsel for Dr. and Mrs. Ossian Sweet, as well as two of the doctor's brothers, Otis and Henry Sweet and seven of their friends and colleagues. They were all accused of conspiracy to commit murder, and murder in the first degree. The young, upright Sweet family's real crime was to buy a bungalow in a previously all-white working class neighborhood in Detroit, and move into their home, on September 8, 1925. A few friends and relatives helped them make the move and volunteered to remain with the family in case of trouble.When rumors circulated of the purchase of the house on Garland Ave. by a Negro family, a new neighborhood improvement association was quickly formed. The newly appointed secretary arranged for a meeting to be held in the local school auditorium. The crowd of middle class whites attending overflowed the large room. This new organization was one of many neighborhood associations established across America, at that time, which "unleashed real estate market's arsenal of discriminatory practices, trying to impose restrictive constraints." The principal speaker for the meeting was a representative from another local group that had successfully driven African American, Dr. Alexander Turner, from his new home the month before. The message, "keep Garland safe from colored invasion."The grandson of run-away slaves, Ossian Sweet put himself through college and medical school by stoking coal and waiting tables. Howard University, where he studied medicine, was the nation's preeminent black university. Although he had achieved the long-held dreams of his family, to become a respected member of the middle class, he still had terrifying memories from his childhood in Florida, of lynchings and unspeakable violence against black people. His childhood fears, exacerbated by his new neighbors' threats, propelled the doctor to invite his brothers and some friends to keep watch with him in case violence broke out. Sweet was well aware that his country was deeply divided, seething with hatred of minorities, (blacks in particular). The burgeoning presence of the Ku Klux Klan in the North, (by 1924, Detroit's Klan had 35,000 members), with their very public and menacing rallies, was extremely threatening. The summer of 1925 had been particularly hot. There was racial violence almost everywhere in urban Detroit. By the night of September 8, the tension in his neighborhood was palpable. Although frightened, Sweet thought he was ready to defend his home. He prepared himself for the expected mob and bought nine guns and enough ammunition for himself and the others, to be used only if necessary. He also notified the Detroit police of his planned move and asked for protection. The Sweet's infant daughter stayed at his wife's mother's home.A crowd of 100 to 150 people gathered in front of the Sweet house for much of the night of September 8, but except for one barrage of rocks thrown against the house, no violence occurred. The next evening Gladys Sweet worked in the kitchen preparing a meal, while Ossian and his acquaintances played cards. At one point, they looked out the windows to see a swelling crowd filling the area surrounding their home - nearly 1000 people. According to the Sweets, stones began flying. The eleven people, shut up in the house on Garland Ave. were very nervous and afraid. Threats of violence and racial epithets were audible. Ossian Sweet said later, "the whole situation filled me with an appalling fear - a fear that no one could comprehend but a Negro, and that Negro, one who knew the history behind his people."After rocks smashed through an upstairs window, shots were fired from the Sweet home. One of the bullets struck thirty-three-year-old Leon Breiner in the back as he stood nearby. Another man lay with a bullet wound to the leg. Six policeman, (who had been present at the time of the shooting, but did nothing to restrain the mob), entered the Sweet home and arrested the eleven occupants, including Gladys Sweet. At police headquarters, the Sweets and their friends were told, for the first time, that a man had been killed and another wounded. An assistant prosecutor informed them that he planned to recommend first degree murder warrants against all eleven, and then promptly jailed them.From her jail cell, Gladys proclaimed, "Though I suffer and am torn loose from my fourteen-month-old baby, I feel it is my duty to the womanhood of my race. If I am freed I shall return and live at my home on Garland Avenue."Author Boyle describes, brilliantly, how the end of WWI launched the Great Migration of Negroes from the rural South to the urban North. "There were 5700 blacks living in Detroit in 1910, 91,000 in New York City. Fifteen years later, Detroit had 81,000 black citizens, NYC almost 300,000." By 1925, Americans were deeply divided by hatred for those who were "different;" those who were not white and Protestant.This popular history, which explores the politics of racism and the bitter battles within the nascent Civil Rights movement, compels the reader to keep turning the pages. The writing is fluid, intelligent and lyrical at times. "Arc Of Justice's" conclusion will, shock and surprise. There are 8 pages of color photographs included. This is one book I will keep and recommend highly to others. Kudos!JANA

*spoilers*The Sweet story is one that should be taught in all Michigan classrooms if not the entire country. As a native Michigander, I was embarrassed and disheartened to have not been familiar with it. The legal drama along with the well researched and written words make it a riveting book, but the importance of understanding and appreciating the race element can’t be understated. Hearing a story of one man and his family, born into slavery and working their way up to the black elite, and still the racism they faced is well told and I recommend this book to anyone interested in today’s race issues.

Kevin Boyle presents a very respectful and vivid history of a single episode of absolute prejudice in the early to mid-20s. Our book club was blown away by the horror of the time when hatred blew across our country like a plague. The biggest horror is that this shameful part of U.S. history is not taught, and our parents and grandparents were so terribly ignorant of the events that were every day fears and terrors to, especially, African Americans, but also to Irish, eastern Europeans and others who didn't fit the WASP stereotype. We knew so little of the struggles of the era and virtually nothing of specific incidents. A very interesting thing to me is that the central figure in the book, Dr. Ossian Sweet, is not particularly likeable (by the reader or, seemingly, by Kevin Boyle) and so our empathy for Sweet is secondary to those others who stood with him and for him. Thank goodness for the giant minds and hearts of this striving for civil rights, and that finally justice began to gain a foothold. It seems almost miraculous that any movement forward was possible. There remains much to be done. A worthy read.

Detroit was a pressure cooker, boiling and ready to explode.Rapid change was the order of the day. Attracted by the fool's gold of the nascent auto industry, Southerners and Europeans flocked to Detroit to pursue their dreams of a better life.A black physician dared to move himself and his family into an all white neighborhood.Gunfire lit this power keg.Kevin Boyle offers a rich window into the character of the key players in the murder trial that gripped the whole country. This book really captured the "feel" of those turbulent times.Boyle goes into great depth of background and brings these historical names to life. This book is a great read for people who ponder about our present day struggles of racial identity and human fairness.

This was a heavily researched, thorough account of the murder trials against Ossian and Henry Sweet in Detroit in the mid 1920’s. It recounts what happened to the family members as they were subjected to hatred and unfairness in the form of racism. It shows how racism is embedded in America, and how hard some people have worked to right the wrongs.

"Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age" depicts the life of one Ossian Sweet from his childhood in the Jim Crow South to his endeavors in the city of Detroit where racial tensions were at a peak in the 1920s. The story begins by keeping you on the edge of your seat as Sweet moved into his new home with his wife and child, accompanied by a band of friends whom open fire onto an angry mob. Excitement and suspense quell as the story continues and ultimately ends in the upmost tragedy when Sweet unexpectedly takes his life during the 1960s Civil Rights movement. Author Kevin Boyle accurately portrays the hardship of African Americans during the Jazz Age, though the manner in which he does so does not keep the attention of the reader throughout the duration of the novel. Court proceedings and other events are drawn out much longer than necessary with more background information than anything else. The facts and main points of the book are valid which makes "Arc of Justice..." a valuable source for an inside look at an era marked by the contrasting factors of hope and opportunity versus fear and violence.

Although somewhat apologetic, Kevin Boyle's book "Arc of Justice" is the story of one black man's attempt to overcome the powerful forces of racism and buy a home in an all white neighborhood in Detroit. While using Sweet's personal story as an example, Boyle traces the history of racial tensions, first in the Reconstruction South and then in the supposedly more race-friendly North, while focusing most specifically on the issue of housing discrimination. Although Ossian Sweet never wanted to be a symbol for his people, it falls upon him when he and his friends are forced to defend his house on the first two nights after he moves in. When one of them shoots and kills one of the white mob congregating outside Ossian's home, he, his wife, and nine others are brought to trial for murder. What follows is a fascinating exposition of the legal and racial issues facing Ossian and his friends, and an exciting courtroom drama with Clarence Darrow in the lead. Boyle is an excellent writer and the book reads quickly and easily. It is a story both tragic and triumphant. I nearly cried in the end. For anyone who thinks that racism and segregation are exclusively Southern phenomenon, this book will surely enlighten the reader to the true reality of racism in the North. And if you think that today its pretty much a thing of the past, this book will show you that "segregation" has little improved since the 1920s. A sobering thought for all of us.

面白い本というのは、ある共通の問いを発しているように思われます。それは、「誰もが陥る可能性がある答えのない矛盾に陥った時、人はどのように決断し、どんな行動をとるのだろうか？」という問いです。この本もそんな問いかけをしています。物語は、一人の黒人医師が犯した殺人をめぐる裁判の話なのですが、１９２０年代の黒人差別主義が盛んなデトロイトでさまざまな矛盾が生み出されます。当時南北戦争による黒人開放とデトロイトやシカゴの北部にある自動車産業等の発展により、アメリカ南部より多くの黒人が政治的自由と経済的自立を求めて北部にやって来ます。北部の白人達も黒人という安価な労働力を無制限に受け入れていきます。やがて都市の黒人人口はあふれ、街の境界線を越えて裕福な黒人達は白人の居住区へ進出して行きます。そのため家を担保に借金をして暮らしていた白人労働者階級は、黒人が来たために不動産の価格が下落することを恐れて、黒人を排除しようとします。そんなとき、「もし誰かが集団で自分に危害を加えて彼らのテリトリーから自分を追い出そうと脅したときに、自分自身とその権利を守るために殺人を犯したら、それは正当な行為とみなされるだろうか？」という問いが発せられます。確かに殺人という行為は行き過ぎなのですが、当時の政治の状況では、白人も黒人もお互いに解決の難しい矛盾の中にいます。そんな状況の中でお互いにどう行動し、司法がどういう判断を下すのか？非常に興味深い問題です。この本は、そんな問いを発しながら、司法と政治の絡まりあった裁判を通して当時の時代背景と空気をリアルに描いています。また、伝説的な弁護士の登場などもあり、法廷エンターテイメントものとしても一級の出来栄えです。ジョン・グリシャムの‘A time to kill'など好きな方にはお勧めです！

Needed for my daughter's history project. She gave up half way through as writing very small. Interesting read though