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Feature
Men Tell Their Horror Stories Of Time Spent At Dozier School
BY LEON B. CREWS Sentinel Staff Writer
Richard Huntly and Michael Little are humble men now, but it took both of them a long time to mentally deal with what happened to them as wards of the Arthur G. Dozier School in Marianna, Florida.
Both men are now litigants in a class action lawsuit against the State of Florida and the Criminal Justice Sys- tem over their treatment at Dozier. The school was shut down in June 2o11 after oper- ating since 1915.
It has been well chronicled about the abuses and murders of children that occurred at the school, and bodies are still being exhumed that were buried on the property. Some of them have been identified, but the majority were not.
Huntly said his experi- ences at the school went from 1957 to 1959.
“The best way I can de- scribe what happened at Dozier was modern day slav- ery at a place that was run like a concentration camp.”
“Most of the Black kids were there for things that aren’t considered to be crimi- nal acts today, like smoking. It was segregated, and the Black kids did all the dirty work. There were Black staff mem- bers during that time, and they were the ones who beat us and handed out other harsh treatments.”
Huntly said they’d get beatings for doing things like walking on the grass, talking,
or drinking water without per- mission.
“When I finally left that place, it took 25 years for me to deal with it physically and mentally. Some kids had it a lot worse and we were all treated like slaves.”
Huntly said there was a building on the property known as the “White House.”
“That’s where a lot of the kids died and where all the atrocities took place. I’m for- tunate to have survived that.
“A lot of the kids who went into the White House later came up missing. None of us knew what happened to them. They just disappeared.”
Huntly said his first expe- rience being locked up started when he was just 8-years-old.
“What that experience did to a small child takes a long time to get over. For a long time, you only did what the slave master told you.
“We were children, and we didn’t know we were slaves. After it was all over, I had to find my place in society.”
Huntly said although they called it a school, educa- tion was lacking for the Black kids.
“I stayed in third grade the three years I spent at Dozier. The white kids were taught trades and given certificates for their participation.
“Today, I’m the father of 10 children, and I own three businesses. I’ve also written a book about my experiences at Dozier.”
Huntly said he had a lot of trust issues to deal with for years, and it’s not easy to get
Michael Little (left) and Richard Huntly.
rid of the visions of brutality that easily.
“They beat us until we bled, but they were smart enough to only hit us on our butts. We were children being treated like adults.”
Huntly said it was a busi- ness and that’s how it was op- erated. He recalled working as a child cutting sugar cane and the job cost him the top of one of his toes. He also spent time working in a food processing plant.
“I found myself being locked up at Dozier a second time, but at least I knew what to expect. But, I still don’t know how I survived.
“I was affected mentally and in adulthood, I drank a lot, carried around a lot of anger and had problems with relationships. I was also abused as an adult when I went to prison.”
Huntly said they were all being held under false pre- tenses and sometimes they just made up stuff to justify their actions.
“When children were made wards of the state they
A.G. DOZIER SCHOOL (Now Closed)
This is the building known as The White House where a lot of atrocities occurred and a lot of kids went and were never seen again.
were sent to Dozier and when they got older, they were put in the fields to work. What happened at Dozier was be- yond disgrace.”
Little spent time at Dozier from 1969 to 1974, and said because of his age, he was like a big brother to some of the younger kids.
“We were fed portions of food smaller than what you’d give a baby. Some days, we weren’t fed at all.
“I remember being se- cured to a wall naked for hours. I could actually see the graveyard from my room.
Little said he was tied to a chair and beaten with what he described as a fan belt from a vehicle.
“I was also beaten until I started bleeding from my butt. “Complaining to the staff didn’t help, because nothing
was ever done.”
Little credits that experi-
ence as being responsible for his behavior after leaving the school.
“I was turned into a tough guy with a lot of revenge in my heart. I stopped caring about how people felt around me, and I’m still angry, but I de- cided to let the courts decide how to punish the people who did those horrible things to us.
“When you first arrived at Dozier, they’d have a blanket party. A blanket was thrown over your head, and the other kids were told to beat you. That’s when we decided to or- ganize to protect each other.”
Both men said some of the kids buried there had been there for decades, and most of them couldn’t be identified, so their families never knew what happened to them.
“They also buried some of the kids in areas no one knew about,” said Little.
PAGE 2-A FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 2015