Unreformed: the Story of the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children
by iHeartPodcasts
In 1968, police arrested five Black girls dressed in oversized military fatigues in Montgomery. The girls were runaways, escaping from a state-run reform school called the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children in Mount Meigs, Alabama. The girls were determined to tell someone about the abuse they’d suffered there: physical and sexual violence, unlivable facilities, and grueling labor in the fields surrounding the school. It was, as several former students called it, a slave camp.
Peabody-nominated UNREFORMED is the story of how this reform school derailed the lives of thousands of Black children in Alabama for decades and what happened after those five girls found someone willing to blow the whistle. Host Josie Duffy Rice investigates the history of the school at the tail end of the Civil Rights movement in Alabama and speaks to former students who are still haunted by their experience but had the will to survive.
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Episodes
Episode 3: Cornelia's Dream
39m · PublishedBy the 1960s, the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children was an early prototype of the for-profit prison. But it wasn’t designed that way. In this episode, we go back to the early 20th century when a Black woman and student of Booker T. Washington named Cornelia Bowen founded Mt. Meigs. She envisioned a safe haven for Black kids who weren’t being served by the state of Alabama and believed in reform through industrial education. She often was successful, and without her, America might not have had one of its most legendary Black athletes, baseball player Satchel Paige.
If you or someone you know attended Mt. Meigs and would like to connect with us, please email [email protected].
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Episode 2: The Arrival
48m · PublishedSurvivors of Mt. Meigs share how they ended up in the juvenile justice system and what happened once they went down the long road to the reformatory. Lonnie and Johnny meet the foreboding superintendent EB Holloway, while Mary and Jennie must deal with the girls’ matron, Fannie B. Matthews.
If you or someone you know attended Mt. Meigs and would like to connect with us, please email [email protected].
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Episode 1: The Lucky Ones
39m · PublishedReporter Josie Duffy Rice travels to a small town outside Montgomery, Alabama, and tries to visit a juvenile reform school, once called the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children or Mt. Meigs. The school opened in the early 20th century as a safe haven for Black kids, but by the 1960s, it had become something else entirely.
Then one day, in 1968, five Black girls ran away, determined to find someone to help. We hear from one of those girls, Mary, and juvenile probation officer Denny. We also hear from Lonnie, now a world famous artist who was sent to Mt. Meigs at age 11, among others. In Unreformed, Rice investigates this institution, and what happened after someone blew the whistle. It looks at the lasting impact Mt. Meigs has had on their lives and juvenile justice in Alabama.
If you or someone you know attended Mt. Meigs and would like to connect with us, please email [email protected].
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Introducing: Unreformed: the Story of the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children
2m · PublishedSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Unreformed: the Story of the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children has 14 episodes in total of non- explicit content. Total playtime is 6:02:41. The language of the podcast is English. This podcast has been added on February 22nd 2023. It might contain more episodes than the ones shown here. It was last updated on May 9th, 2024 18:10.
