A 1925 Detroit courtroom battle over race and justice
"A taughtly written...courtroom drama." --San Fransisco Chronicle
“100 years ago, Dr. Ossian Sweet defended his family from a racist mob and took a courageous stand that helped bring an end to discriminatory housing policies in America. The incredible story of what transpired on Garland Street in 1925, and the events that followed, is a must read.” –Mike Duggan, Mayor of Detroit
In this buried chapter of American history, a nearly forgotten case of famed attorney Clarence Darrow comes hauntingly to the surface. In 1925 the NAACP approached Darrow to defend Ossian Sweet—a highly respected black doctor who, after integrating an all-white neighborhood in Detroit, found himself the victim of a community attack. When Sweet and his family fought back, they were caught in a melee in which a white man was fatally shot.
The trial that ensured, one of the most urgent and compelling in the nation’s history, would test the basic tenets of the American Dream—the right of a man to defend his home.
“This real-life thriller delivers the goods. Ossian Sweet’s case may not have been Mr. Darrow’s most famous trial, but it may well have been his most important.” –Dallas Morning News
Tautly researched and harrowingly reported, The Trials of Ossian Sweet is an “important slice of American legal history and the history of the civil rights.” (Kirkus Reviews)
“One of the most dramatic civil rights struggles of the early twentieth century, a fifight ably researched and compellingly chronicled by Phyllis Vine. –Chicago Tribune
“It reads like a thriller but for the fact that it’s true.” –Studs Terkel
Originally published in 2004 by Amistad under the title One Man’s Castle. A portion of the proceeds benefit the Dr. Ossian H.Sweet Foundation.
