We carry their bones : the search for justice at the Dozier School for Boys Cover Image

Book

We carry their bones : the search for justice at the Dozier School for Boys / Erin Kimmerle.

Summary:

For over a century the Arthur G. Dozier Boys School in Florida was the scene of cruelty, abuse, and "mysterious" deaths. The boys sent there, many of whom were Black, were subject to brutal abuse, routinely hired out to local farmers by the school's management as indentured labor, and died either at the school or attempting to escape its brutal conditions. When the institution shut down in 2011 Kimmerle, a forensic anthropologist, stepped in to locate the school's graveyard to determine the number of graves and who was buried there, hoping to reunite the boys with their families through forensic and DNA testing. Records suggested thirty-one boys were buried in unmarked graves in a remote field on the school's property; the real number was at least twice that. Kimmerle provides a detailed account of Jim Crow America and an indictment of the reform school system as we know it. -- Adapted from jacket

Record details

ISBN: 9780063030244
ISBN: 0063030241
Physical Description: x, 241 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 24 cm
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: New York, NY : William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2022]
Copyright: ©2022

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-230) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Opening the earth -- New light -- Graveyard -- The Battle of Boot Hill -- "Satan has his seat" -- A meeting with the chief -- "Hell on Earth" -- "We can't forget... what happened in Jackson County" -- "Oftentimes, history doesn't include the good parts" -- "Thank you for all your good work" -- Reconstruction -- Identification -- "It's not even past" -- "Where is he?" -- "The unimaginable happened at Dozier" -- "You have the truth on your side" -- What remains.