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 Posted: Thu 13 Jan 2005 15:52 Post subject: Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in |
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Sice this book is in the news, it should be noted (but almost never mentioned) that Gladys Sweet (wife of Ossian Sweet) was very "mulatto elite" in her origins and unbringing.
Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age
by Kevin Boyle
Pictures of Sweets and other important figures in the case
http://info.detnews.com/history/story/index.cfm?id=201&category=events
Description of Gladys
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/sweet/biographies.HTM
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Gladys Sweet is a striking woman. Do you remember the fairy tale in which a noble prince opens an orange, out of which flies a golden bird? Sipping from a crystal stream, the golden bird changes into a golden princess. Gladys might have been that princess. Her lovely skin, petal-like in texture, has much less yellow in it than the softest shade of fawn. Creamy tan, in tone it is midway between Houbigants fragrant brunette powder and a light grain of wheat. When she becomes interested she flushes a delicate pink. Long thick lashes fringe her warm brown eyes which reflect swiftly her every mood. Sometimes there is a hint of dimples in her checks. Her wonderful dark hair seems at first glance to be jet black, but in the sunlight it is full of auburn glints. (When loosened, it hangs well below her waist.) Ordinarily she wears it Spanish fashion, parted in the middle, and coiled loosely at the back of her neck. It lies like cloth of velvet against her smooth face. Gladys is not beautifulthere are minor defects which forbid that supreme description. But she is most unusual and interesting looking. Add to this that she is slender, graceful, finely wrought, sensitive, aloofand you will understand why artists often ask to paint her. As graciously but none too enthusiastically she gave me her slim hand I realized that here was a woman who, for all her appealing youth (she is twenty-four) and her soft femininity, had been so chilled by the affronts life had offered her that she had quietly and proudly withdrawn into herself.
Gladys whole life has been spent in the North and in cities. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she was seven when her father brought his family (which consisted of only Gladys and her mother), to Detroit. There, in a well-paid orchestra, he earned a good livelihood. Also he gave piano lessons. The Mitchells were always in comfortable circumstances. They owned a car and a pleasant home. They respected themselves and were respected by their neighbors, all of whom, as it happened, were white. Some of them testified most valiantly in Gladys behalf at the first trial.) Not only were the Mitchells the only colored people in the block, but for a good many years Gladys was the only colored child in her grade. When she finished high school in Detroit she went to the Teachers College in that city and graduated from it. Shortly afterward she met Dr. Sweet, and in about a year (1922) married him. In less than another year they went to France.
On the French liner, they were of course treated courteously. Their stateroom was between those occupied by white people. In Paris, Dr. Sweet, whose specially is gynecology, worked under Madame Curie. (He is, as are so many doctors of the day, particularly interested in the effect of radium on chronic diseases, especially on cancer.) Later he went to Vienna, where he attended the Eiselburg Clinic. The civilized attitude of the French toward Negroes is too well known to make it necessary for me to elaborate upon it. Even so, perhaps, Gladys might have encountered petty insults from fellow countrymen sojourning abroad, but Dr. Sweet, who is considerably older (in his thirties I should judge), was always there as a buffer to protect her and make life easy and happy for her. It was only when her baby was to be born and she was rudely refused admittance to the American Hospitalto which Dr. Sweet, ironically enough, had contributedthat she was smartingly aware of the fact that she was not white. French friends, fortunately, were not so prejudices. In spite of this one unhappy incident, those days abroad were happy ones for Gladys, and the trip home (again on a French liner) was wholly pleasant. Moreover, Gladys whole outlook on life was broadened and modified. Naturally drawn toward all that is finest, quick to assimilate the best, full of temperament and artistic feeling, she began to develop real charm. |
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