The Tragic Story of Dr. Ossian Sweet: American Dream Turned Nightmare
Join Dr. Carol François and Kourtney Square, the aunt and niece duo, for Episode 2 of Why Are they So Angry? This episode focuses on how de jure segregation promulgated in federal, state, and local laws unconstitutionally barred Black/African Americans from owning homes and land. Being able to live in safe, secure housing and buy property to create generational wealth encapsulates the “American Dream”. Historically, for many Black/African Americans that dream has been a nightmare. You will hear that the outcome of segregation resulted in land theft, deteriorating neighborhoods, and the current day wealth chasm between whites and Black/African Americans. The episode draws heavily on Richard Rothstein’s book The Color of Law: The Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America along with several recent studies and news articles about racial inequity in housing and real estate.
Partial Citations:
”A Look at Housing Inequality and Racism in America,” By: Dina Williams, Forbes Magazine, June 3, 2020.
“Black homeowners face discrimination in appraisals,” By Debra Kamin, New York Times, Published Aug. 25, 2020, Updated Aug. 27, 2020.
“Black Homeownership: The Role of Temporal Changes and Residential Segregation at the End of the 20th Century”, By: Lance Freeman, Social Science Quarterly, Vol. 86, No. 2 (JUNE 2005), pp. 403-426.
“Defending the Home: Ossian Sweet and the Struggle Against Segregation in 1920s Detroit”, Victoria W. Wolcott, OAH Magazine of History, Vol. 7, No. 4, African-American History (Summer, 1993), pp. 23-27.
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, By: Richard Rothstein, Liveright Publishing Company, 2017.
“The Trial of Henry Sweet: Clarence Darrow confronts the issues of the day”, By: James W. McElhaney, ABA Journal, Vol. 78, No. 7 (JULY 1992), pp. 73-74.
“University launches investigation after a Black professor was asked by campus security to prove she lived in her own house,” By Alaa Elassar, CNN, Wed August 26, 2020.
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