Detroit burning

The African-Americans that book focuses on were not the pacific heroes typically trotted out during Black History month; they took a stand. ''Arc of Justice," to its great credit, tells a story about the civil rights movement that is neither familiar nor uplifting.

Dr. Ossian Sweet is the epic's tragic hero. The grandson of a slave, he put himself through college and medical school by stoking coal and waiting tables. Howard University, where Sweet studied medicine, was the nation's preeminent historically black university, but that did not shelter it from the violent racial pogroms that marked the early 20th century. The Washington, D.C., campus was only a short distance from the World War I military camps that had housed white soldiers awaiting deployment to Europe. A rumor in 1919 that one of their wives had been raped by a black man sparked four days of lawlessness.

Which atrocities, if any, Sweet actually witnessed is unclear. His later murder defense was premised on a kind of ''battered Negro's syndrome" -- all the racial violence he had witnessed during his 30-odd years caused a fear and aversion to angry white mobs.

It is possible that Sweet saw the soldiers beat down the black men near the White House or assault colored passengers whom they pulled from streetcars. Likewise it is possible that growing up in Florida he witnessed 300 rabid white folks burn at the stake a 16-year-old black youth suspected of raping and murdering a white woman. He claimed he had.

Boyle seems dubious. Sweet was only 5 at the time, and no responsible parent would have let a black boy anywhere near that crowd. There is no doubting, however, that all of this white mischief took its toll on Sweet's psyche.