Unreformed: the Story of the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children

Unreformed: the Story of the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children

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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 af...

Vote now! UNREFORMED Nominated For Webby Award

Vote now! UNREFORMED Nominated For Webby Award

Hi listeners! This is Josie Duffy Rice. We wanted to give you some good news and ask once more for your help, if you wouldn’t mind!  First the good news! I am so honored to tell you that Unreformed has won a few very exciting awards lately. We won an Ambie award for best history podcast of the year, an international women’s podcast award, and we also won TWO Signal Listener’s choice awards because of you and your votes. We are unbelievably grateful for this recognition. The opportunity to tell t

Apr 9, 2024 • 2:20

UNREFORMED Nominated for Signal Listener's Choice Awards - Vote now!

UNREFORMED Nominated for Signal Listener's Choice Awards - Vote now!

Unreformed has been nominated for two Signal Listener's Choice Award. Voting is open through October 5, 2023, you can vote for the show under "Best Host" and "History" in the Limited Series and Specials category. Link to vote is here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sep 29, 2023 • 1:31

Introducing: Out of the Shadows

Introducing: Out of the Shadows

Out of the Shadows is a podcast about America's tangled history of immigration hosted by award-winning New York Times writer Erick Galindo and entrepreneur and best-selling author Patty Rodriguez. Season 2: Dreamers Last season, we tackled Ronald Regan’s 1986 amnesty act, Season 2 will trace the origins of DACA or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a contentious executive order to protect undocumented young people from being deported. Issued by former President Barack Obama in 2012, DACA wa

Sep 2, 2023 • 2:07

Introducing: Queen Havoc and Her Murder Cult

Introducing: Queen Havoc and Her Murder Cult

Hi, Unreformed fans! Dive into how South African cult leader Cecilia Steyn leads her followers to kill 11 innocent people over the course of four years. Join host and filmmaker Kurt Kubicek as he travels to Krugersdorp, SA - a small mining town rocked by these brutal serial murders. Listen to Queen Havoc and Her Murder Cult now on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts! About Queen Havoc and Her Murder Cult: Serial Cult murders in South Africa bring on a deep, winding, decade-long

May 31, 2023 • 2:26

Episode 8: Searching for Justice

Episode 8: Searching for Justice

In the final episode, we look at where Lonnie, Mary, Johnny, Jennie, Johnny Mack, and Denny are fifty years after leaving Mt. Meigs. We also look at how juvenile justice in America has evolved and how other juvenile reform schools that mistreated their students have atoned for their wrongs. And lastly, we get a glimpse into the current state of Mt. Meigs. Has it changed? Or is it the same place it was more than fifty years ago? If you or someone you know attended Mt. Meigs and would like to conn

Mar 8, 2023 • 44:54

Unreformed presents "5-4: Tanner v. United States."

Unreformed presents "5-4: Tanner v. United States."

Hey folks, Josie here! We wanted to share a show that we think you might like. It's called 5-4, and it's about how much the Supreme Court sucks. 5-4 is all about how the Supreme Court DOESN'T provide justice, and we think that will resonate with Unreformed listeners.  If you like it, you can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. About 5-4: A podcast about how much the Supreme Court sucks. It’s a progressive and occasionally profane take on the ideological battles at the heart of the Court’s

Mar 7, 2023 • 48:37

Episode 7: The Aftermath

Episode 7: The Aftermath

Many people who were incarcerated at Mt. Meigs as children ended up spending their entire lives tethered to the criminal legal system. Many were sentenced to life in prison. Many others were sentenced to death. This episode traces the lives of two of those people: Jesse James Andrews and Johnny Mack Young.  If you or someone you know attended Mt. Meigs and would like to connect with us, please email mtmeigspodcast@gmail.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mar 1, 2023 • 35:05

Episode 6: Scallawags and Carpetbaggers

Episode 6: Scallawags and Carpetbaggers

Denny Abbott enlists the help of lawyer Ira Dement to sue the state of Alabama. What ensues is a years-long battle, multiple lawsuits, personal turmoil, but also...a glimmer of hope for the kids at Mt. Meigs.  Special thanks to Denny Abbott and Douglas Kalajian for the use of their book, They Had No Voice: My Fight for Alabama's Forgotten Children. If you or someone you know attended Mt. Meigs and would like to connect with us, please email mtmeigspodcast@gmail.com.See omnystudio.com/listener fo

Feb 21, 2023 • 41:59

Episode 5: When Mary Met Denny

Episode 5: When Mary Met Denny

Mary Stephens and four other girls escape Mt. Meigs and are determined to tell someone about what's happened to them. Probation officer Denny Abbott must make a decision.  If you or someone you know attended Mt. Meigs and would like to connect with us, please email mtmeigspodcast@gmail.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Feb 15, 2023 • 25:08

Episode 4: The Runaways

Episode 4: The Runaways

Since the 1920s, notices started appearing in the local newspapers near Mt. Meigs. They said things like "Six armed negroes escaped Mount Meigs Industrial School” or “Police seeking escape artist in burglary."  In this episode, we hear about the tradition of running away at Mt. Meigs. Lonnie tells us about his experience running away and the harrowing consequences that led him to spend months on the rock pile.  If you or someone you know attended Mt. Meigs and would like to connect with us, plea

Feb 8, 2023 • 28:37

Episode 3: Cornelia's Dream

Episode 3: Cornelia's Dream

By 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

Feb 1, 2023 • 39:38

Episode 2: The Arrival

Episode 2: The Arrival

Survivors 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 mtmeigspodcast@gmail.com.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jan 25, 2023 • 49:04

Episode 1: The Lucky Ones

Episode 1: The Lucky Ones

Reporter 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 al

Jan 18, 2023 • 39:50

Introducing: Unreformed: the Story of the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children

Introducing: Unreformed: the Story of the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jan 9, 2023 • 2:10

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