Arc of Justice tells the histories of people whose lives came together on Garland Avenue and in the courtroom where Ossian Sweet was put on trial. On the discussion board this week, I want you to consider two decisions of great importance to all involved in the story of the mob, the killing, and the trial: First, Ossian Sweet's decision to buy and defend his home on Garland Ave. Second, Clarence Darrow's decision to defend Sweet at trial. You should provide your thoughts on both of these decisions. For guidance, consider the following:
- Ossian Sweet was born far away from the white neighborhood where he would buy a house in the summer of 1925. What had taken Sweet to Garland Ave? Why buy a house on a white street? And why stand and defend that house when it became so obvious that his neighbors would reject him, in this case violently?
- By the time Clarence Darrow took the Sweet case he was already an accomplished, famous, and wealthy attorney. Why defend Sweet? What were the stakes of the trial, as Darrow saw it? How, in Darrow's mind, were the cultural battles of Detroit in the 1920s connected to the fights he had waged his whole professional life?