 |
Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age, by Kevin Boyle, chronicles the ordeal of Dr. Ossian Sweet, who moves with his young family to a previously all-white Detroit neighborhood in the steamy summer of 1925. When the local block association incites a mob to drive Sweet back to the ghetto, he gathers people to defend his new home with a deadly arsenal. The resulting shooting death of a white man leads to a sensational murder trial, featuring the legendary Clarence Darrow, fresh from the Scopes Monkey trial, defending Sweet, his family and their associates.
Written with a “novelist’s flair” Arc of Justice “grips right up to the stunning jaw-dropper of an ending” (Publishers Weekly). It is a National Book Award winner, New York Times Notable Book, and was cited as one of 2004’s Best Books by the Boston Globe, National Public Radio, Detroit Free Press, The Seattle Times and Salon.com. What did you think of this book? Tell us! |