A whole lot of Black males who say they have been bodily or sexually abused at two state-run reform colleges in the course of the top of Jim Crow within the Nineteen Sixties are making use of for restitution from the state.
5-hundred boys have been positioned at what’s now known as the Dozier Faculty for Boys throughout that point; they have been housed there for minor offenses like absenteeism from college or petty theft. Orphans and deserted kids have been additionally despatched to Dozier.
Victims have lately come ahead to share accounts of violent beatings, sexual assault and even deaths they’ve witnessed. Virtually 100 boys died between 1900 and 1973 at Dozier, a few of them from gunshot wounds or blunt pressure trauma.
A number of the our bodies have been shipped again house whereas others have been buried in unmarked graves, as reported by Related Press. The outlet additionally shared that earlier than the Dec. 31 deadline, the state obtained virtually 1,000 functions for restitution from these held on the Dozier college and its sister college in Okeechobee, Fla.
In 2023, state lawmakers allotted $20 million to be divided equally among the many the victims.
Bryant Middleton, one of many males who got here ahead and a warfare veteran, publicly spoke about what he endured in 2017. He was despatched to Dozier between 1959 and 1961.
“I’ve seen rather a lot in my lifetime. Numerous brutality, lots of horror, lots of demise,” Middleton stated per the Florida Phoenix. “I’d quite be despatched again into the jungles of Vietnam than to spend one single day on the Florida Faculty for Boys.”
Dozier was closed in 2011 by Florida officers following state and federal investigations documenting the abuses. Florida officers additionally formally apologized for the abuse. The movie “Nickel Boys,” based mostly on the incidents at Dozier, was launched in 2024.