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Man Speaks About Dozier School
12/10/08 - 05:52 PM

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An investigation into an unmarked cemetery at the Dozier School For Boys in Marianna is moving forward. A group who calls themselves the White House Boys believes the graves may contain the remains of students who were killed on school grounds during the 1950’s and 60’s.

Bristol resident, Keith MacKendrick, attended the Dozier School for Boys from 1955 to 1958. He says that although the school was tough, it’s what a lot of people there needed. He says, “That’s what they needed. There was an education with it. You went to work one day and you went to school one day. Everyone got a trade. Whether they followed up with it or not. It was fairly good.”

Mackendrick recalls the notorious “white house” located on the grounds. He says it was also nicknamed the “ice cream parlor.” A place he was sent to once during his four years at the school to make up for receiving a poor grade in one of his classes. MacKendrick explains, “If you were gonna get paddled, you’d wait outside in a group at the dining hall and they’d march you in there. Unless they took you down there immediately, like if you were in a fight or something and they wanted to paddle you right then and there, or if you were a runaway that’s where they took ya.”

Mackendrick says the boys would be disciplined with a paddle or whip while lying on a single bed located inside the “white house”. He says, “They’d just tell you to hold that pillow and bite it if you had to. And don’t make a sound and don’t get up.”

When Mr. Mackendrick attended the school it was segregated. He says he didn’t know there was a cemetary because it was located on the “black” side of the grounds but he is curious to know who is buried there. He states, “I think they need to find out what’s going on. If it’s some of the people that were in the place or whether it’s an old Civil War gravesite. They need to find out what it is.”

Mackendrick also says that some of the boys were beaten so badly, they had to be taken out in a wheel chair.

The Department of Juvenile Justice acknowledges that abuse took place in the building called “the white house.” A spokesman for the agency says it will cooperate with any investigation into the graves.