The Sweet Trial

 The men who were arrested for murder after killing a member of the white mob in self-defense.

The Attack on Garland Street

After moving to an all-white neighborhood in Detriot, Michigan, Ossian Sweet and his family found themselves b being targeted by the powerful Ku Klux Klan and its 100,000 city-wide members. Furthermore, in the two years from 1923 to 1925, Detroit police killed 55 African Americans with impunity, proving that they were an organization to fear. By the summer of 1925, many houses of black people in the city had been attacked by organizations dedicated to keeping specific neighborhoods white as they believed it would lead to social disruption and a loss of value in their homes. After sending their daughter to stay with her grandmother, Ossian Sweet and his wife, Gladys, moved into their house on Garland Street. On their first night at the new home, Sweet's brother, Henry, and three friends brought guns and ammunition to their place in anticipation of neighborhood backlash. "Well, we have decided we are not going to run. We are not going to look for any trouble," said Sweet. "But we are going to be prepared if trouble arises." After the first night was relatively non-violent, the second night saw a larger, more hostile crowd. The situation escalated, and the group began hurling rocks at the Sweet house. After noticing that one stone had broken an upstairs window, several of Sweet's friends had taken defense positions upstairs with their guns. Eventually, someone fired from the house in the chaos, hitting two white men named Eric Houghberg and Leon Breiner. Houghberg's leg was hurt, and Breiner died from the shot he'd taken. Immediately after the shooting, police arrived at the scene and took the eleven African Americans in the house to the police station, where they faced five hours of questioning each. All were arrested for murder after continued interrogations.

The Trial of Ossian Sweet

The mass media attention gained by the defendants' trial suggested the massive impact the verdict would have on the ongoing civil rights movement in America. The trial was presided by Frank Murphy, who was known to be a progressive judge in Detriot. The NAACP stepped in to help the Sweets pay the legal fees and hired Charles H. Mahoney, a renowned African American lawyer, to represent the defendants. Soon, the NAACP invited nationally famous defense attorney Clarence Darrow to join the Sweets' defense team, alongside Mahoney. Darrow accepted and took control of the defense. By the time of the trial, charges had been dropped against three of the original eleven defendants. On October 30th, 1925, the trial began in front of an all-white jury. Darrow's defense was based on the history of race relations in the country, including testimony about the history of racial violence and lynching. The defense also relied on the defendants' testimony to show fear when they were being attacked by the angry mob. In his testimony, Ossian Sweet explained, "When I opened the door, I saw the mob, and I realized I was facing the same mob that had hounded my people throughout our history. I was filled with a fear that only one could experience who knows the history and strivings of my race." Darrow's illustration of the systemic prejudice by the angry mob and police officers in the incident proved effective. After lengthy deliberations, most jury members agreed that the eight remaining defendants should be acquitted. But due to some charges resulting in a hung jury, Judge Murphy declared a mistrial. Eventually, everyone in the Sweet household on that chaotic summer day was acquitted.