Ossian
Sweet was a bell-hop in Detroit and an odd job man in
Cleveland. However, after attending college and medical school at
Ann Arbor, managed to qualify as a doctor. He also studied at the
University of Vienna before moving back to Detroit where he established
a surgery.
In 1925 Dr. Sweet had raised enough money to purchase a house in an
middle-class area of the city. As soon as the neighbourhood heard
that a black family intended to move into the area, they formed what
they called an Improvement Association. At its first meeting they
decided they would resort to violence if the Sweet family attempted
to take possession of the house. When Dr. Sweet moved in he was accompanied
by Henry Sweet, his bother and seven other men. They were all armed
and when the house was attacked by a white mob, they opened fire,
killing one man and seriously injuring another.
Charles Darrow, a man who specialized
in defending unpopular causes, agreed to represent the men. In court
he argued that Ossian Sweet had the right to
use violence to defend his house against an attacking mob. The jury
agreed, and the men were acquitted. As Darrow said in his autobiography:
"The verdict meant simply that the doctrine that a man's house
is his castle applied to the black man as well as to the white man."
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