Yesterday I had to go attend to my monthly lab work while in Florida.
The Lab was in the panhandle town of Marianna, Florida. It is a very beautiful community but I found that it has had quite the horrifying past.
It is the location of the grave site of the Confederate Governor of Florida, John Milton.
It is also the historic site of the Battle of Marianna, a Civil War skirmish.
The town was defended against a army of about 900 Union soldiers.
The defense was mounted by 150 old men and boys.
There is also a even much darker tale of that was also part of it's history...
The Florida School for Boys, also known as the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, was a reform school operated by the state of Florida from January 1, 1900, to June 30, 2011 in this quaint community of Marianna.
A second campus was opened in the town of Okeechobee in 1955.
From its inception it was suppose to be a refuge for troubled children convicted of crimes.
However, in 2012, forensic anthropologist Erin Kimmerle was intrigued by the so-called White House Boys, a group of men who, in the 1950s and 1960s, said they were subject to severe whippings in a white house on the Dozier campus.
Many reported their suspicions that boys were killed there and their bodies disposed of.
Scanning the surface of the ground, Kimmerle’s group discovered dozens of graves in the “north side” and suspect that a second, “south side” cemetery existed as well.
In 2013, Governor Rick Scott gave Kimmerle a permit to excavate at Dozier, and in 2014, osteological analysis of the excavated bones revealed at least 55 bodies — more than twice what official records documented.
After passage of resolutions by both houses of the legislature, on April 26, 2017, the state held a formal ceremony to apologize personally to two dozen survivors of the school and to families of other victims.
In 2018, bills were being considered to provide some compensation to victims and their descendants, possibly as scholarships for children.
In 2019, during preliminary survey work for a pollution clean-up, a further 27 suspected graves were identified by ground penetrating radar.
Many people, including former detainees, believe that over 100 bodies were buried on the school's grounds.
The legacy of Florida's Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys was a horror tale that came to life. 😲
Nana
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