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

Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age by Kevin Boyle
127 reviews (2004) (448p)
Pulitzer Prize for History Finalist
National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction Finalist
National Book Award for Nonfiction Winner
Amazon DECADE Editor History Top 10

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Book Description
An electrifying story of the sensational murder trial that divided a city and ignited the civil rights struggle

In 1925, Detroit was a smoky swirl of jazz and speakeasies, assembly lines and fistfights. The advent of automobiles had brought workers from around the globe to compete for manufacturing jobs, and tensions often flared with the KKK in ascendance and violence rising. Ossian Sweet, a proud Negro doctor-grandson of a slave-had made the long climb from the ghetto to a home of his own in a previously all-white neighborhood. Yet just after his arrival, a mob gathered outside his house; suddenly, shots rang out: Sweet, or one of his defenders, had accidentally killed one of the whites threatening their lives and homes.

And so it began-a chain of events that brought America's greatest attorney, Clarence Darrow, into the fray and transformed Sweet into a controversial symbol of equality. Historian Kevin Boyle weaves the police investigation and courtroom drama of Sweet's murder trial into an unforgettable tapestry of narrative history that documents the volatile America of the 1920s and movingly re-creates the Sweet family's journey from slavery through the Great Migration to the middle class. Ossian Sweet's story, so richly and poignantly captured here, is an epic tale of one man trapped by the battles of his era's changing times.


Kevin Boyle Award Stats
Major Prize* Nominations 3  
Unique Books Nominated for a Major Prize* 1  
Pulitzer Prize Wins 0  
Pulitzer Prize Nominations 1 Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age ·  
National Book Critics Circle Award Wins 0  
National Book Critics Circle Award Nominations 1 Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age ·  
National Book Award Wins 1 Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age ·  
National Book Award Nominations 1 Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age ·  
Man Booker Prize Wins 0  
Man Booker Prize Nominations 0  
PEN/Faulkner Award Wins 0  
PEN/Faulkner Award Nominations 0  

*Major Prize = Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, National Book Award, Man Booker Prize, and PEN/Faulkner Award

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