In Plain Sight
by Jon lowenstein
Slavery dies hard in the southern USA.
New revelations that unidentified bodies of young boys are buried in the cemetery at the now closed Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Florida’s Panhandle, has brought forth more disturbing talks of slave labor and violent brutality at the scandal ridden facility.
Thousands of boys, mainly black, passed through Dozier since it opened in 1901 as a reform school for wayward boys. But allegations over the years suggest it functioned more like a slave labor camp, with verified reports of children being hog tied and shackled.
Most of the stories in news reports have been told by white men. For the first time, black men, organized as the Black Boys at Dozier , a survivors group, returned to the now closed facility, to share their histories.
Modern day trafficking in America defies stereotypes: the victims come from all types of backgrounds, economic classes and education levels.What all of them have in common is that they were forced against their will, and often under physical or psychological threat, to be enslaved.
The people in this project are the lucky ones: they escaped. Each year many are murdered by their captors.The others languish in the daily reality of modern day slavery.
