‘Locked Up Simply for Existing:’ Prof. Kaniqua Robinson on Race, Memory and the Legacy of the Dozier School

By Jeremy Loudenback | CALmatters Network Still from the “Nickel Boys” movie, which follows two Black youth who survived abuse at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida. Photo provided by Amazon MGM Studios. “Nickel Boys,” a movie that portrays the struggles of two Black teens held in a nightmarish juvenile detention facility in 1960s Florida, will contend for the best picture Oscar at the 2025 Academy Awards next month. Adapted from Colson Whitehead’s 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, the story Is based on true-life abuse at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida. The infamous 111-year-old state institution closed 14 years ago after dozens of former residents shared horrifying accounts of killings, brutal floggings, torture and sexual abuse. Officials now believe as many as 100 children died at the institution, which held boys as young as 5. Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys after Hurricane Michael. Photo by DaseinDesign under CC BY-NC 2.0. “Daily, that pain is still with me,” Richard Huntly testified before the Florida Legislature last year. Huntly, who leads a survivors’ group representing Black boys abused at the Dozier School, described vicious beatings that occurred when he...