To understand the power of this interview, you’ll have to let your mind go back…back to the way it was in Florida, around 19 and 52, when the Dozier School for Boys was at the zenith of its abusive power…
It is fitting that the details of the horrible legacy, this brutality that was secretly inflicted upon dozens of black boys who died mysteriously while in the school’s custody, would be unearthed and rediscovered by a Black Renaissance man from Hartford, Connecticut… A man whose life’s work has been about rescuing kids in crisis… an award-winning photo-journalist and founder of Hardnotts University and the Deep Focus podcast…
This story is told from the viewpoint of a documentarian who had been raised in Hartford’s Charter Oak Terrace, the oldest and one of the worst housing projects in the country… a man they call a “Yankee,” but his name is Duane “Muffit” Fernandez. He is the author of the newly released book, “Lies Uncovered: The Truth About the Arthur G. Dozier Reform School for Boys.”