West Virginia University College of Law

Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development, Valorie K. Vojdik, facilitated a group discussion at the 24th Annual Midwest Clinical Law Teachers Conference at Wayne State School of Law held Oct. 9-11. The award-winning book by Ohio State University history professor, Kevin Boyle, Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age, served as the “one book” at the heart of the Conference. Arc of Justice recounts the trial of Ossian Sweet, an African-American doctor who bought a house in an all-white neighborhood in Detroit in 1925. He was arrested and prosecuted for conspiracy to commit murder after he and friends were forced to defend themselves after a white mob sought to remove him from his home. Clarence Darrow and the NAACP defended Dr. Sweet. The book describes the process of residential segregation in Detroit and the role of the federal government and white prejudice in creating and perpetuating racism in Detroit.