History 474A

Devine

Kevin Boyle, Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age

We will discuss Boyle’s book on Tuesday, February 17th. There will be a twenty question short answer quiz on the reading.

The following study questions should help guide your reading of the book. The numbers following the questions correspond to the respective chapters.

1. Why did the native white population in the large Northern cities see immigrants and blacks as such threats during the twenties? (Prologue)

2. What factors led to the emergence of racialized ghettos in large Northern cities? (Prologue)

3. How would you describe the white people who lived on Garland Avenue – their background, their sense of community, their economic status, their attitudes toward African Americans? (1)

4. What kind of a reception did Ossian Sweet anticipate when he moved into his new home? How do we know this? (1)

5. How would you rate the actions of the police on the night of the incident at Sweet’s bungalow? (1)

6. What does the author mean when he says “freedom had no shape” for newly emancipated slaves after the Civil War? (2)

7. What message did the AME church preach to the newly freed slaves? (2)

8. What was the underlying philosophy of “Jim Crow”? In what ways did white society legalize officially this philosophy? (2)

9. To what extent did Fred Rochelle’s killing affect Ossian Sweet? (2)

10. What factors made Wilberforce University seem the ideal place for young Ossian to pursue his education? (3)

11. Why, by the end of Reconstruction, had Northerners largely lost interest in aiding black education? (3)

12. What events triggered the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1908? (3)

13. What was the “talented tenth?” In what ways did many black leaders think that the American entry into the World War I would benefit the “talented tenth?” (3)

14. Why did blacks seem to fare better in the violent racial confrontation that occurred in Washington D.C. in 1919? (3)

Summary of Chapter Four: “Uplift Me, Pride”

In this chapter Boyle describes how white Detroiters in the early 20s became increasingly xenophobic—fearful of “foreigners”—which in this case included both immigrants (largely Jews and Catholics) and blacks. The population of each group swelled as the city’s booming auto plants soaked up more and more workers. Local community leaders became increasingly concerned that these workers were not sufficiently Americanized, which meant they did not adequately conform to Protestant, Anglo-Saxon traditions or expectations. Henry Ford, the greatest auto tycoon of all and a virulent anti-Semite, mass produced millions of copies of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which purported to be a Jewish blueprint for a world wide conspiracy to undermine Christian civilization. The document was a fraud.

The Great Migration of southern blacks to northern cities during World War I caused much of the racial stress in Detroit. As war industries geared up production and many factory workers enlisted in the army, roughly a half million blacks moved north to fill jobs. Even though they were still relegated to dangerous, difficult, and sometimes humiliating work, blacks earned far more money than they could as sharecroppers or contract laborers back home. In Detroit, most African American migrants flooded into an overcrowded area known as Black Bottom.

Black Bottom was a horror. The newcomers were packed into run down, dilapidated housing which, ironically, was more expensive than surrounding areas. (Because local whites resisted allowing the newcomers to “invade” their neighborhoods, landlords within Black Bottom could charge higher rents knowing the migrants had nowhere else to go.) The area lacked proper sewage, electricity, and water service. Street car lines were scarce, crime festered, and police brutality was an everyday occurrence. Disease was rampant, particularly the ailments of the poor and overcrowded: tuberculosis, pneumonia, diarrhea, and malnutrition.

It was unthinkable for a young black doctor to attempt to open a practice catering to whites, so, in 1921, Ossian Sweet came to Black Bottom to live and practice medicine. He opened his first office in the back room of a local pharmacy. And he did well. Like many educated and ambitious blacks, the young doctor saw in the flood of southern peasants the chance to make his fortune. Ossian quickly joined the right black clubs and social organizations, including the local AME church. Through his new connections he secured a lucrative position as a medical examiner for an insurance company and joined with other doctors in the area to found Dunbar Memorial, a modest hospital, but the first to serve the population of Black Bottom. Ossian Sweet had certainly become a member of Detroit’s “talented tenth.”

The 20s also witnessed the emergence of a new model for black behavior, the so-called “New Negro.” Black leaders challenged their race to be far more militant. Many blacks had served in World War I only to return to an America that was beset anew with racial strife, lynchings and the like. In the view of men like W. E. B. Dubois, it was time for the “New Negro” to assert his claim for equal rights and demand full integration into society.

On the other hand, the “talented tenth” often blamed the newly arrived blacks for holding back the race, demonstrating a fissure within black society. Some black elites were convinced that Detroit’s race relations had declined partly because whites were appalled by the bad manners migrants had brought with them from the rural South. The Detroit Urban League even published pamphlets instructing the newcomers on how to behave in public places.

Ossian Sweet, however, had other concerns. He met Gladys Mitchell in 1922 and fell in love. Gladys, a light skinned black, had grown up in a mixed middle class Detroit neighborhood. Her father was a successful musician. In essence, Gladys was surrounded by the colored elite that Ossian, who came from much humbler roots, had scrambled to join. Their childhoods stood out in stark contrast. Violent racism had not scarred Gladys in the way it had Ossian. She was far more comfortable in the presence of Caucasians and was a quarter white herself. When they married, there was no way that Ossian could take Gladys back to Black Bottom. Instead they moved in temporarily with her parents.

Months later, Ossian and Gladys embarked on an ambitious trip to Europe. On the continent, Ossian was able to study at some of the most prestigious European medical institutions, free from the crippling discrimination American blacks experienced back home. Although Dunbar Memorial lacked the resources to adopt the medical advances that Ossian learned about in Europe, the experience provided him further credentials and respect among his peers. The only stain on the trip occurred when a very pregnant Gladys was turned away from the American hospital in Paris because of her race, even though Ossian had donated a handsome sum to the facility. She delivered her baby, daughter Iva, elsewhere.

15. What was the stated purpose of the Waterman Park Improvement Association? What was its real purpose? To what extent was it connected to the Tireman Avenue Improvement Association? (5)

16. What kinds of people did Frank Murphy and Johnny Smith try to organize as a force against the Ku Klux Klan? (5)

17. In what ways did banks, real estate agencies, and the realities of the housing market conspire against black homeowners? (5)

18. Why were white homeowners on Garland Avenue in a precarious economic situation? (5)

19. Why did the Waterman Park Improvement Association have such little success convincing white homeowners to sign restrictive covenants? (5)

Summary of Chapter Six: “The Letter of Your Law”

A paddy wagon brought the eleven defendants to police headquarters. As they waited to be interrogated, Ossian and the others quickly and quietly agreed on their story. When questioned by the police, the young doctor claimed, unconvincingly, that he did not know he had purchased a home in an all white neighborhood. He also stated falsely that he had not invited the others to join him that night. He claimed that they had instead come of their own volition, some on business, others as friends. They had all been waiting to eat dinner when the disturbance began.

Sweet also asserted, correctly, that they fired their weapons only after the windows were broken by rocks and bricks thrown by the crowd outside. He had a more difficult time explaining why he had brought so many guns with him to his home. Sweet confessed he had heard some rumors of trouble that night, but he stuck with his contention that he had no reason to believe the worst would occur when he moved in. When he was pressed by the police to explain this inconsistency, Sweet simply claimed it was his house and he had a legal right to live there, which was true.

The other participants largely stuck to Ossian’s version. As agreed, they all claimed that they had just happened to be visiting that evening. Although the details were often inconsistent, the defendants independently affirmed two basic points. The bricks and rocks came first, and nobody would admit they were upstairs when the shots were fired—nobody except Henry Sweet, Ossian’s brother. In a notable break with the others, Henry admitted he fired a shotgun from the upstairs window, above the heads of the crowd, but he claimed it was only after rocks had shattered the glass.

The defendants were able to contact local black attorneys who set about to plan their defense. The Detroit “talented tenth” felt strongly that politics were actually on their side. Recently the black community had joined with white ethnics to vote Johnny Smith into the mayor’s office over a candidate picked by the local Ku Klux Klan. (In truth, Smith used his connections with the city bureaucracy to throw out enough of his opponent’s ballots on dubious technical grounds to insure victory.) The black lawyers also knew that the presiding judge, Frank Murphy, was a progressive who was very sympathetic to their cause. Given the circumstances of the confrontation on Garland Avenue, the lawyers felt there was every reason to expect the defendants would be released.

Unfortunately, they were blindsided by the press which played up the incident as a blatant attack by blacks on law-abiding whites. The Detroit Free Press interviewed police inspector Norton Schuknecht who claimed there was no mob, no crowd surrounding the house, and certainly no stones thrown through windows. According to Schucknecht, the neighborhood was perfectly peaceful when the Negroes opened fire. The story went on to suggest that the Waterworks Park Improvement Association had tried to persuade the previous owners not to sell the property to a black family, to no avail. The paper reported that the Sweets arrived fully armed and without any furniture, implying that they intended to initiate a confrontation. The article suggested that the deceased, Leon Breiner, had simply been strolling down the street when he was cut down by bullets from the Sweet’s house.

The afternoon papers, usually fierce competitors of the Detroit Free Press, confirmed the story—the police had been in control, there was calm, no crowd had assembled before the shots were fired. In addition, it was reported that Henry Sweet had confessed. With pressure mounting, Judge Murphy, the progressive jurist that the lawyers had assumed was on their side, signed the warrants and ordered a hearing.

Prosecutor Robert Toms prepared the case, which he knew was a political necessity, given the inflammatory nature of the coverage in the press. He understood, however, that centuries of legal precedent supported the Sweets’ right to protect their property if threatened. In fact, it had long been held that an actual threat need not be present; simply the perception of a threat was sufficient to warrant self defensive action on the part of a property owner. The defendants would have to say only that they were threatened by a mob.

Therein lay the rub. Michigan law defined a mob as twelve or more armed persons or thirty or more unarmed persons assembled to inflict harm. When the white residents of the neighborhood were questioned by the assistant district attorney or by Schucknecht himself, they were always careful to keep their estimations of the crowd size that night just below the legal definition of a mob. Clearly they had been well coached. Armed with this information, and the testimony that no rocks had been thrown before the shooting began, the prosecution sought first degree murder charges for all defendants, including Gladys. All eleven would face life in prison.

Johnny Smith dealt the final blow to the Sweet’s cause with his comments on this case. The mayor accused the KKK of setting up the conflict. According to Smith, the Klan had been trying to induce blacks all summer to move into white districts just to stir up trouble. But Smith also blamed blacks for supposedly taking the bait. Said Smith, “I believe that any colored person who endangers life and property, simply to gratify his personal pride, is an enemy of his race as well as an incitant of riot and murder.” By all measures, the prospects for Ossian, Gladys and their companions were dimming by the day.

Summary of Chapter Seven: “Freedmen, Sons of God, Americans”

This chapter begins with a description of the rise of the remarkable black scholar, journalist, composer, and diplomat James Weldon Johnson to prominence within the NAACP and chronicles his attempts to fight urban residential segregation, like that of Detroit’s, in the courts. The NAACP’s first victory came in a 1917 when the U.S. Supreme Court threw out a local ordinance in Louisville, Kentucky which had created segregated areas within the city’s jurisdiction. In actuality the conservative court had probably been more interested in limiting the ability of any municipality to infringe on individual property rights, and more importantly, the case only applied to city governments. It did not stop individuals, real estate agents, or neighborhood groups from creating their own restricted areas. The NAACP planned to take on that more difficult challenge in a case involving an all white neighborhood group in Washington, D.C. that had devised its own restrictive covenants to keep blacks out.

To fight such housing discrimination the NAACP hoped to form a coalition of blacks and white ethnics (Jews and Catholics) who were also often targeted by the Ku Klux Klan and other nativist groups. Indeed, a Jew, Leo Frank, was lynched in Georgia in 1915, basically for the crime of being a Jew. However, years of competition between white ethnics and blacks for what Boyle calls “a share of industrialism’s dregs”—meaning crummy jobs—had created a longstanding mutual distrust between the groups. When he couldn’t depend on the support of white ethnics, Johnson came up with the idea of creating a self sustaining legal defense fund to pay for the expensive court battles. When news of the Sweet case passed his desk, Johnson knew he had just the kind of story he needed to galvanize the fund raising effort. Thus, the NAACP needed the Sweet case as much as the Sweets may have needed the NAACP.

This chapter also details the fascinating story of Walter White, a brilliant NAACP official with decidedly Anglo-Saxon features—white skin, blue eyes, and blonde hair. Although his black heritage was impossible to detect, White proudly insisted he was a Negro. His appearance proved to be of great value to the NAACP in that he could infiltrate and investigate scenes of racial mayhem—lynchings, race riots, pogroms (the complete destruction of towns)—without local whites ever suspecting that he was not one of them. White was also an elitist, a man who inhabited the most rarified artistic and intellectual circles of New York City. He was a star of the Harlem Renaissance, a prolific author whose work often touted the heroic “New Negro” standing up valiantly against white oppression and mob violence. It became White’s mission to wrest control of the Sweet case from the local Detroit lawyers and deliver to it the national NAACP and Johnson’s new legal defense fund.

Of course, the local black lawyers in Detroit had no intention of giving up their chance to defend these “New Negroes.” And they enjoyed the support of the local black community which was raising its own funds to pay for the defense. But after the lawyers’ effort to get the case dismissed at the preliminary hearing proved unsuccessful, defendant Otis Sweet, one of Ossian’s brothers, made a public plea to the NAACP to take over the case. Said Otis, “…more is involved than the liberties of the eleven persons concerned; it is a case that boldly challenges the liberties, the hopes, the aspirations of fifteen million colored Americans.” Suspecting that lead local attorney Cecil Rowlette was using the case mainly for publicity and fame, Otis Sweet demanded a change of counsel.

Once in charge, White and Johnson decided that it would be far more advantageous to employ a powerful white lawyer to defend the eleven blacks in front of what was sure to be an all white jury. But when they contacted candidates from the NAACP’s list, they found no takers. Everyone had an excuse of some sort. Although some may have been legitimate, in all likelihood the rising popularity of the Klan convinced many of the lawyers to steer clear of the case. A huge Klan rally took place in Detroit the very day the defendants were formerly arraigned. Three days later the Klan’s candidates swept the primary elections in the city. It appeared that whites of every description were consolidating behind the Klan’s program of racial purity. It seemed it would be only a matter of months before the Klan would control the entire metropolis, turning Detroit into a Great White City.

Just when things looked darkest a letter landed on Johnson’s desk from a man who served as the legal counsel to the Chicago Defender, one of the nation’s most prestigious and most widely read black newspapers. The lawyer, N. K. McGill, expressed an interest in helping out with the case. He suggested he had access to several prominent attorneys in Chicago, dropping the name of Clarence Darrow as one of his contacts. Johnson could scarcely believe his eyes.

For a quarter of a century Darrow had been the most celebrated defense attorney in the country. Most recently he had defended a school teacher in Tennessee in the so-called “Trial of the Century,” also know as “The Scopes – Monkey Trial.” John Scopes, a high school biology teacher, had been charged with teaching evolution in violation of Tennessee state law. In a theatrically charged event broadcast nationwide on radio, the rumpled Darrow took on the fundamentalist beliefs of prosecutor William Jennings Bryan, in effect putting creationism itself on trial. The prospect that Clarence Darrow, the nation’s most famous defense lawyer, might be willing to aid the Sweets’ cause was almost unimaginable. Might he be convinced to actually take on the case himself?

20. What kinds of people did Clarence Darrow build his reputation defending? What do his cases tell you about his values? (8)

21. Who and what were the targets of Darrow’s scorn? How do you think Darrow would have defined an ideal America? (8)

22. How accurately did the Negro Press depict Ossian Sweet and his actions on the night of the murder? How did this attention affect Ossian? (8)

23. What group did W. E. B. Dubois target as the real culprits of urban racial segregation? Was his argument based on racism or greed? (8)

24. When Clarence Darrow put together a jury, what types of people was he looking for? How much importance did he place on jury selection? (9)

25. To what extent was Darrow able to puncture the testimony of the key prosecution witnesses? (9)

26. What was the point of having Ossian Sweet tell his life story on the stand? How relevant do you think it was to the case against him? (9)

27. In his closing argument, how did Darrow build his case that it was the Negro and not the Nordic who should be considered the superior race? (9)

28. On page 301 Boyle writes, “no one had gone into this case simply to win it.” What do you think he means by this? (10)

29. What effect did Ossian’s triumphant tour between trials have on the NAACP, the black community at large, and the Sweets themselves? How, specifically, had Ossian changed in the six months since the fateful night on Garland Avenue? (10)

30. Why was the NAACP aghast that Darrow wanted Thomas Chawke to join the case for the second trial? (10)

31. Why was the testimony of Edward Miller and Alf Andrews so pivotal in the second trial? (10)

32. Throughout the 30s and 40s, white liberals condemned the mobs that kept blacks out of white neighborhoods. According to Boyle, what point were the liberals missing? Who was equally to blame for housing discrimination? (Requiem)

33. What ultimately happened to Ossian Sweet? To what extent is this story heroic, ironic, or tragic? (Requiem)