His purchase of a home confronted racial segregation in Detroit, Michigan, and answered the question of whether an African American had the right to defend his or her property.

Most Detroit residents of apparent African American descent were forced to reside in an eastside location known as Paradise Valley. In May 1925, Dr. Ossian Sweet made arrangements to purchase 2905 Garland Street, a single home bungalow in what appeared to be an all-white eastside neighborhood in Detroit, Michigan. The immediate area included apartments, grocery store, and an elementary school. Sweet made himself visible as he inspected the property and its surroundings. The home’s previous owners, Ed and Marie Smith, had occupied the Garland home for two years. Ed Smith was an African American with a light complexion and apparently the neighborhood Negro haters overlooked or were ignorant of his lineage. Nevertheless, once sale of the Garland house was known, Marie Smith received a threat for selling the house and was told that the caller would get Sweet as well.

Sweet graduated from Wilberforce College, followed by Howard University School of Medicine. Raised in a politically conscious and hardworking family with at least nine siblings, Ossian Sweet’s father, Henry Sweet, believed in self-sufficiency for his sons. Consequently, Ossian Sweet financed his own education. After graduating with his medical degree in 1922, Sweet married Gladys Mitchell and both traveled to North Africa and Europe-Germany, France, Austria, Vienna, and England-where he received further specialized medical training. Sweet chose to practice gynecology and obstetrics at Detroit’s progressive New Negro hospital, Dunbar Memorial Hospital (named after poet and writer Paul Laurence Dunbar). The Sweets had one child, Marguerite Iva Sweet, their daughter. In 1925, the Detroit, Michigan, arm of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was large and active. In the 1923 Detroit mayoral election, KKK candidate Charles Bowles narrowly lost to John Smith. Commonly, during 1925, mobs of racist whites quickly formed to keep African Americans from integrating neighborhoods. On June 23, 1925, Dr. Alexander Turner, along with his wife and mother-in-law, were moving into their home on Spokane Street when they were met by the Tireman Avenue Improvement Association-hundreds of neighbors who gathered in front of them with rocks, potatoes, and garbage to throw at Turner’s westside home. At gunpoint, two men forced Turner to sign his deed over to them and, with the help of the police, had the Turner family escorted from the premises. One block away from the de facto designated Negro neighborhood, Vollington Bristol constructed and moved into his apartment building on July 7, 1925, and refused to adjust his rent and choice of who could rent an apartment. Several days of violence ensued. On June 10, 1925, John Fletcher was preparing to have dinner with his wife and two children when a mob of neighbors began attacking the house. Two shots were fired from the Fletcher home, injuring a youth. Fletcher was jailed for an evening and the family later fled their home. Hence, Dr. Sweet knew what to expect from an angry white mob when he moved into his Garland home.

Sweet’s pending move to Garland Street encouraged the formation of the Waterworks Park Improvement Association, which held at least one meeting at Howe Elementary School (named for abolitionist and composer of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, Julia Ward Howe), located across the street from Sweet’s home. Sweet notified the Detroit Police Department of his intention to move into his home. On September 8, 1925, Dr. Sweet and his family and friends moved in their Garland home. On their first evening, it is estimated that a group of 500 to 800 individuals, led by the Waterworks Park Improvement Association, gathered in front of the Sweet home. On September 9, 1925, another large crowd gathered and some individuals began chucking rocks into 2905 Garland. About 8:30 P.M., fearful occupants fired shots from the upper level of the home. Leon Breiner was shot and killed, and another neighbor, Eric Houghberg, was shot in the leg. Eleven occupants were taken into custody, including Gladys Sweet, and were charged with first-degree murder.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) hired famed attorney Clarence Darrow, assisted by Arthur Garfield Hays, to defend the eleven defendants. Judge Frank Murphy allowed Gladys Sweet to be released on bail on October 2, 1925. The other ten defendants were Dr. Ossian Sweet, Henry Sweet, Dr. Otis Sweet, William E. Davis, John Latting, Joe Mack, Leonard Morris, Morris Murray, Charles Wasington, and Hewitt Watson. On November 27, 1925, Judge Frank Murphy declared a mistrial and dismissed the jury when they were unable to reach a verdict after forty-six hours of deliberation. The defendants were released on bail in December 1925.

Henry Sweet fired the gun that killed Breiner. The trial, Michigan v. Sweet began on April 13, 1926. On May 13, 1926, after four hours of deliberation, Henry Sweet was found not guilty. Over a year later, in July 1927, the prosecutor dismissed all charges against the remaining defendants. The Sweet case reinforced the right of an African American to self-defense. Tuberculosis claimed the lives of Sweet’s daughter in 1926 and his wife in 1928. Dr. Sweet was unable to sell his home until 1944. He committed suicide on March 19, 1960. The Sweet home is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.