Saving the Black Child: Dozier School for Boys and the Racialization of Juvenile Justice

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Collective memories are often contested, negotiated, revised, created, and recreated, due to being the products of multiple groups with competing and conflicting interests. This study examines the public memorialization of the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, a state reform school in Marianna, Florida, and the silencing of the Black youth as multiple groups, specifically the White House Boys, seek to be the central voice of the school's past. Black youth inmates were vulnerable to the racial inequities of the juvenile justice system, particularly in the early years of the institution. This study argues that their inferior position during their time at Dozier and the racial sentiment that persists resulted in their invisibility in the current public memory-making process. This study further explores the counter-memory practices of former Black inmates of Dozier as they created new platforms for their racialized experiences.