A hundred years ago, Alabama took over a reform school that served Black children who were "wayward" or broke the law. But survivors say the facility at Mount Meigs was run more like a slave plantation, complete with forced labor and physical and sexual abuse. For decades segregationist politicians gave administrators a free hand in running the school. Then in the 1960s a whistleblower led a lawsuit to improve conditions - with qualified success.

School of Humans and iHeartMedia present “Unreformed: The Story of the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children.” Host Josie Duffy Rice talks to former residents to recount the institutional cruelty and intergenerational trauma inflicted by the school at Mount Meigs.

OUR SPOILER-FREE REVIEWS OF "UNREFORMED: THE STORY OF THE ALABAMA INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL FOR NEGRO CHILDREN" BEGIN IN THE FINAL TEN MINUTES OF THE EPISODE.

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This show was recorded in The Caitlin Rogers Project Studio. Click to find out more.

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