Arc of Justice free essay sample

The book Arc of Justice by Kevin Boyle is about race and discrimination in the early and mid 1900s, it is very depressing. The story begins in 1925 Detroit, an ever growing city so tight with racial tension. Dr. Ossian Sweet and his wife Gladys and fourteen month old girl Iva have moved to a bungalow on Garland Avenue (a mostly white neighborhood) in Detroit. The Sweets left the baby at her grandparents at first, until they were sure they would be safe. He brought along with him nine friends to help protect if needed, and a bagful of guns in a gunnysack. He brought a shotgun, two rifles, and six pistols, and a bulging brown satchel filled with four hundred rounds of ammunition. The first night they stayed in their house they were terrified, They stayed up all night with their rifles at their sides. Their new neighbors rioted, throwing rocks at the Sweets house, breaking glass and scaring everybody in the house. We will write a custom essay sample on Arc of Justice or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The hired police officers meant to guard the Sweets against danger made no effort to stop the mob. Suddenly, someone inside the house shot out into the street, wounding one white man named Eric Houghberg and killing a man named Leon Breiner, and the 11 black adults, including Sweets wife were taken to Jail immediatley and charged with first-degree murder. Under the racial rules of engagement for 1925 America, what should have happened to the group of black defenders is that they all would be dragged from the house into the streets and immediatley lynched. However, the NAACP hired the iconic lawyer, Clarence Darrow to defend them. Kevin Boyle, Arc of Justice. A Saga of race, Civil Rights,a nd murder in the Jazz Age, pg 27 The author then goes into farther detail telling us about Ossians past life. Ossian was inspired by the black leader W. E. B. DuBois, in particular by his notion of the Talented Tenth, the well-educated, professional black class W. E. B DuBois claimed would lead the way to racial equality. For Sweet, who had escaped the South to earn a medical degree when he was Just thirteen years old, and take his place among the Talented Tenth, the pressure to fght against the institutionalized racism of Detroit was immense. He was accepted to Howard University Medical School, one of the two only African American medical schools in the Spring of 1917. He worked hard and graduated ffrom the school in 1921. From there he moved to a little town called Black Bottom in Detroit and opened up a small practice in what was once a pharmacy. 3 One evening in 1922 Ossian meets Gladys Mitchell and he starts courting her and quickly marries her. Gladys becomes pregnant in 1922 but has a premature newborn that doesnt survive. They travel to Europe after this and in 1923 she becomes pregnant again. Shortly bedfore Gladys delivery date, Ossian makes an appointment at an American Hospital in a nearby suburb where they were at. However they wouldnt admit Gladys because the other patients at the hospital wouldnt feel comfortable with a Negroe around. Luckily Gladys had a successful easy birth and on March 29th 1924 their daughter Iva was born. a 87 3Kevin Boyle, Arc of Justice. A Saga of race, Civil Rights,a nd murder in the Jazz Age, pg 113 aKevin Boyle, Arc of Justice. A Saga of race, Civil Rights,a nd murder in the Jazz Age, pg 128- 132 Shortly after coming back form Europe Ossian rents the bungalow on Garland Avenue and thats where all the trouble began. Ossian, however was prepared for the orse. Prosecuter Attorney Red Kennedy interrogated the 10 black men and Gladys and all of them had similar stories. They all claimed that they werent huddled around, armed and waiting for there to be an attack. Ossian had invited them all over for dinner, Mrs. Sweet was cooking dinner, one man was in the bathroom, some were playing cards , one was in the basement getting the boiler heated up, two men were doing their Jobs that Ossian hired them to do, and two men were there looking for rooms to rent. Ossians father Henry Sweet almost gave the cover up away when he aid he went upstairs to get his rifle because there were stones being thrown that were coming towards him. But he claimed it as self defense and the attorney couldnt take it as a confession. s Clarence Darrows defense of the Sweets rested on the argument that they shot to save their own lives and after eight months and two trials they claimed legal victory. Their case became a courtroom drama of national importance. Detroits mayor, Johnny Smith, was running a tense race for re-election against a Klansman.