![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/218\/2025\/02\/Kaniqua-Robinson-2023-768x432.jpg\")
Kaniqua Robinson, assistant professor of anthropology, is writing a book about Dozier School survivors.<\/p><\/div>\n
As an applied cultural anthropologist, her focus is on race, memory and the criminal justice system. Her research into Dozier, which she began as a graduate student, is based on Dozier archives, written accounts of boys who were sent there and interviews with the formerly incarcerated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw two churches on the campus and wanted to know how religion was used as a form of social control,\u201d Robinson says of her initial involvement in the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen as information came out specifically about the abuse that happened to (the boys),\u201d she adds, \u201cI wanted to know not only how we are memorializing the deceased, but the living who were formerly incarcerated at Dozier. How are we remembering their experiences?\u201d<\/p>\n
Boys at the school were subjected to extreme physical and mental abuse, including horrific beatings, a sweat box reminiscent of slavery, forced labor and severe overcrowding, she says, similar to scenes that are portrayed in the Nickel Boys novel and movie.<\/p>\n
And because there were more Black youth, and they were subjected to more abuse, she says, she\u2019s focusing on the Black experience at Dozier in the 1960s – still part of the Jim Crow South – to gain a holistic understanding of the past.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was not a race-neutral experience happening there,\u201d she says. \u201c(I\u2019m looking at) how were their experiences different and what made them more vulnerable, and how as Black youth they were vulnerable to racial inequality and how it was a part of the incarceration system.\u201d<\/p>\n
For instance, was the incarceration of Black youth meant for reform, or as another means of getting free labor, she asks, adding that their experiences more closely mirrored the correctional system than a reform school.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlack youth were never meant to be reformed in this system,\u201d she says. \u201cThey conceived the idea that Black people were inferior \u2026 that they were \u2018less than.\u2019 And their sentences were often extended. They wanted more labor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robinson says it\u2019s important to document the testimonies of those still living, especially given efforts to silence the Black experience at Dozier.<\/p>\n
\u201cWalking the campus with someone who shared their experiences (with you) \u2026 can get emotional,\u201d she says. \u201cYou could see how they felt, even though they left so long ago, and the impact it had on their lives, the trauma level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, she says, the ceilings still bear the marks from where they were struck by the whips used to beat the boys.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to do more research into the juvenile justice system,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
At Furman, Robinson teaches several classes in anthropology, including Introduction to Anthropology and Anthropological Theory, which focuses on understanding the world\u2019s cultures and societies. Some of her classes relate to her Dozier research as well, she says.<\/p>\n
While Robinson has already published a scholarly article on Dozier, she says her current research will be presented in a book due to her publisher in July.<\/p>\n
Although no Furman students were involved in her Dozier research, Robinson says an upcoming project that focuses on the preservation and erasure of Black cemeteries in the Greenville area will include Furman students. Along with researching archival information, she says, they will visit cemeteries in Black communities to better understand those communities and whether the erasure of their cemeteries was intentional or happened through neglect.<\/p>\n
Whitehead\u2019s book and the movie \u201cNickel Boys\u201d aren\u2019t part of Robinson\u2019s research, but she says they are important in helping the public understand what the Black youth endured at Dozier.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand it\u2019s a fictional movie, but it is grounded in research on the school,\u201d she says. \u201cI appreciate that it will generate new interest into the stories of Dozier\u2019s victims.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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