Posted on 08/07/2014 5:34:18 PM PDT by jacknhoo
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - In December 1940, Owen Smith's mother wrote the superintendent of the then-Florida Industrial School for Boys about the welfare of her 14-year-old son, who had been sent there months earlier for being with a friend in a stolen car.
Frances Smith received a letter from superintendent Millard Davidson, saying no one knew where Owen was. A month later, the family was summoned to Florida Panhandle school and led to an unmarked grave. Owen was in it, they were told - he had escaped and was found dead under a house. Frances Smith never accepted the story. She waited for him to come home.
On Thursday, University of South Florida researchers said they had identified George Owen Smith as the first of 55 bodies they exhumed from the grounds of the renamed Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, an institution with a troubled history where the facilities were often decrepit and guards were accused of brutality. The researchers were unable to determine how Owen died, and they will probably never know.
Owen hastily buried in a two-foot grave, lying on his side with his hands over his head, they said. He was unclothed other than a shroud. His family says he will soon be reburied next to his mother and father in the central Florida city of Auburndale.
"This is what we worked for," said his sister, Ovell Krell, now 86. "It was not an easy road."
The identification was made through a DNA sample collected from Krell.
Official records showed 31 burials at the Marianna school between its opening in 1900 and its 2011 closure for budget reasons, but researchers found the remains of 24 additional people between last September and December.
Some former students from the 1950s and 1960s have for at least a decade accused employees and guards at the school of physical and sexual abuse, but the Florida Department of Law Enforcement concluded after an investigation that it couldn't substantiate or dispute the claims because too much time had passed. Many former Dozier inmates from that era call themselves "The White House Boys" after the white building where they say the worst abuse took place.
In 2008, the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice held a ceremony to officially "seal" the building and recognize the boys who passed through it. Some of "The White House Boys" were present and media coverage of the event, as well as an order from then-Gov. Charlie Crist, led to the investigation. Researchers, reacting to the allegations, excavated the graveyard at the school.
Krell said her older brother would wear a guitar string around his neck and that the family would sing country-western songs for entertainment. He hadn't been in trouble before the stolen car, she said.
Over the years, the family had kept his wallet, which was displayed at Thursday's press conference.
"It was important to him and I often wondered why he left it," Krell said. The wallet had a Junior G-Man card, which was tied to a popular radio program that featured a former FBI agent.
At its peak in the 1960s, 500 boys were housed at the Dozier school, most of them for minor offenses such as petty theft, truancy or running away from home.
In 1968, when corporal punishment was outlawed at state-run institutions, then-Gov. Claude Kirk visited and found the institution in disrepair with leaky ceilings, holes in walls, cramped sleeping quarters, no heating for the winters and buckets used as toilets.
"If one of your kids were kept in such circumstances," he said then, "you'd be up there with rifles."
Some of the bodies were found under roads or overgrown trees, well away from the white, metal crosses marking the 31 officially recorded graves.
Erin Kimmerle, the lead researcher and an associate anthropology professor, said another body could soon be identified.
Officials have said it's unclear if there are other graves elsewhere on the school site. The team excavated only five of the property's 1,400 acres.
Jerry Cooper, who is head of a White House Boys group, said the circumstances of Owen's disappearance and the way he was buried support their contention of abuse.
"I want an apology from the state for what happened there, but so far no go," said Cooper, who was sent there as a teenager in the early 1960s for riding in a stolen car. He has said he suffered horrible beatings with a leather strap in the White House. "If they apologize, they are admitting guilt and they aren't going to do that."
____
Spencer reported from Miami.
KKK in Marianna Fl, 61 Blacks were Lynched in Florida, How Do You Think the Black Boys at Dozier School Were Treated? By 1930, four thousand blacks had been lynched nationwide by white mobs, vigilantes, or the Klan. Most of these occurred in the Deep South, many with law enforcement complicity. And while Alabama and Mississippi had more total lynchings, it was Florida, surprisingly, that had the highest per capita rate of lynching from 1900-1930. It is a matter of fact that young boys, both white and colored, were raped and tortured at the Dozier School for Boys “White House” in Marianna Fl, at least 65 ended up dead. During the time frame of 1932 to 1936 there were reported to be 12 young ’colored boys’ who died of “Pneumonia” at the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna Fl. On October 26th, 1934 the ‘colored man’ Claude Neal was brutally tortured and lynched in Marianna Fl by the KKK and his body was left hanging to a tree in the Marianna Town Square for 24 hours, so what really happened to those ‘colored boys’ at Dozier? “Find A Grave” source indicates that there are supposed to be 65 bodies buried at the Florida Industrial School for Boys, the names are individually listed see link click here, this source indicates that 15 boys died between 1932 to 1936, 3 were White Boys and 12 were “Colored boys”, C/M indicates Colored Male; 1). Brinson, James 45678576 C/M d. 1932 Florida Industrial School 2). Buckley, Joshua 45678920 C/M d. 1935 Florida Industrial School… 3). Cato, Robert 45669559 C/M d. Feb. 24, 1935 Florida Industrial School… 4). Denson, Jesse 45678747 C/M d. 1932 Florida Industrial School… 5). Hammond, James (Joseph) 45669658 C/M d. May 2, 1936 Florida Industrial School 6). Harrell, Lonnie 45678483 W/M d. 1932 Florida Industrial School… 7). Heading, Willie 45678614 C/M d. 1932 Florida Industrial School… 8). Huff, Grady 45669604 W/M d. Mar. 4, 1935 Florida Industrial School… 9). Nelson, Richard 45669478 C/M d. Feb. 23, 1935 Florida Industrial School… 10). Nipper, Sam 45678650 C/M d. 1932 Florida Industrial School… 11). Pender, Dary 45678809 C/M d. 1932 Florida Industrial School… 12). Shaw, Archie 45678881 C/M d. 1932 Florida Industrial School… 13). Smith, Lee 45669267 C/M d. Jan. 5, 1932 Florida Industrial School… 14). Stephens, Joe 45669369 C/M d. May 9, 1932 Florida Industrial School… 15). Vanadoe, Thomas 45669415 W/M d. Oct. 26, 1934 Florida Industrial School…
Another excerpt for background, because the media won't talk about who these killers were:
KKK in Marianna FL, From 1869-71, four years after the Civil War ended in 1865, Marianna, Jackson County FL was the center of a low-level guerrilla war known as the Jackson County War. Members of the Ku Klux Klan consisting of Confederate Army veterans assassinated over 150 white Republican Party officials and murdered prominent African-Americans as part of a successful campaign to retain white Democratic power. The Florida Industrial School for Boys also known as the Dozier School for Boys Marianna Fl opened for business on January 1st, 1990, it appears that many of the guards and school officials were pulled from the membership of the KKK as was Florida governor Fuller Warren. In January 1949, Klansmen held a motorcade through Tallahassee Fl for newly- inaugurated governor Fuller Warren, a former Klansman from Blountstown Fl in the Panhandle.
http://www.pibillwarner.com/2013/09/kkk-in-marianna-fl-61-blacks-were.html
I am not aware of anything regarding any documentary films, etc.
There is a Wikipedia page on it with plenty of links, too:
Florida School for Boys
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_School_for_Boyshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_School_for_Boys
Three of those 61 Blacks raped and murdered 12 year old Lilly Bessie Morrison. She was my Grandmother's first cousin and best friend. They were the same age. All 3 were shot to death and basically received mercy compared to what they did to the child.
Oh, Lord, that is a horrible story. They’re in hell now.
Want to fix that statement in your diatribe?
I sincerely doubt you would care to correct the rest of your implied insults to all the “ Republican racists” in the “Deep South”.
Because facts matter, and that “little typo”, along with blurring history, negates your credibility.
My former husband, a poor white boy, lived in fear of being sent to Dozier while growing up in the 1970s.I met many enlisted members from the Southern states in the DOD in the 1980s who knew about Dozier, and a few who had spent some time there.
To a man, none would ever forgive or forget the corrupt evil Democrats responsible for it.
The Florida Panhandle is so reliably “Republican” today, that many “Democrats” feel free to lie about history, and claim that Republicans were dominant in the region during the “troubles”. AKA the Civil War.
BTW, also in the 1970s, the KKK was very active in Michigan.
Labor Union members loved them!
I grew up there, and lived in that environment.
I'm not dead yet, so I will keep telling the truth about the events I lived through.
Poor sarasmom didn’t read, but assumed.
It is an excerpt as stated, from that site, regarding the 1990 typo from that site. Most anybody would understand that it was supposed to be 1890, but who am I to edit the original author’s words. Perhaps she should write “that” site with her pleasantness.
Poor sarasmom didn’t comprehend what she read, as she saw what she desired to see, when she read, and she imagined words that are not there and ignored words that are. I would call that, reading in denial.
sarasmom, off on “her” diatribe, didn’t bother to read this, because she has such an open mind.
Sweet sarasmom, just for you, I’ll re-post it, and again, this is an excerpt...so, if you find a typo please direct your pleasantness to the actual site it was excerpted from. As I will not edit an except.
“KKK in Marianna FL, From 1869-71, four years after the Civil War ended in 1865, Marianna, Jackson County FL was the center of a low-level guerrilla war known as the Jackson County War. Members of the Ku Klux Klan consisting of Confederate Army veterans assassinated over 150 white Republican Party officials and murdered prominent African-Americans as part of a successful campaign to retain white Democratic power. The Florida Industrial School for Boys also known as the Dozier School for Boys Marianna Fl opened for business on January 1st, 1990, it appears that many of the guards and school officials were pulled from the membership of the KKK as was Florida governor Fuller Warren. In January 1949, Klansmen held a motorcade through Tallahassee Fl for newly- inaugurated governor Fuller Warren, a former Klansman from Blountstown Fl in the Panhandle.”
Here again, sarasmom, is a link to the original site the excerpt comes from:
http://www.pibillwarner.com/2013/09/kkk-in-marianna-fl-61-blacks-were.html
By the way the 1990, typo, should read 1900.
I believe everything else written by that author, agrees with your understanding. You just assumed it didn’t...I think that hurts your credibility, lol.
When I was a kid back in the 50s “Marianna” was sufficient threat to keep a lot of kids on the straight and narrow.
When I was growing up, my mother threatened to take me to Bonny Oaks Reform School...she would even drive me by the Bonny Oaks exit on the highway. She made it sound bad and told me that’s where they put boys to correct their bad behaviors. I had no idea what Bonny Oaks really was, and my friends were made to be afraid of it too, but it worked with me.
Turns out it wasn’t such a bad place:
http://jayssouth.com/tennessee/bos/
I can image the impact that a truly evil place, like Marianna, brought.
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