Farmers were used to plowing up human bones in “Maryland’s Hellhole.” In 1972, a Black member of the Maryland legislature visited the site rumored to contain the bodies of 67 Black boys. The actual number was much higher.
In 2025, this Washington Post investigation revealed that at least 230 children died at the House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Boys, a juvenile prison where boys as young as five were sent for things like petty theft and running away from home.
Some were forced to work barefoot in winter. When 16-year-old Charles Salisbury contracted frostbite, he died after his legs were amputated. Like many other boys in the institution, he likely ended up in an unmarked grave.
Parents weren't notified of their children’s deaths. In a 1934 Afro-American article, one former detainee told reporters that on one occasion, staff told parents their son had run away when, "The truth is that I had helped bury that boy just the night before." Research, Black-led restoration projects, and efforts to find the boys' families are underway.
And this isn’t an isolated incident. Similar reports come from Florida's Dozier School for Boys. State-sanctioned violence is harmful for all of our people, especially Black children, who deserve the utmost protection. This story is one of many reasons why working toward a Black, liberated future is a matter of life or death.