{"id":59,"date":"2010-08-13T16:40:09","date_gmt":"2010-08-13T20:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/robingabyfisher.com\/?p=59"},"modified":"2022-05-04T15:08:17","modified_gmt":"2022-05-04T19:08:17","slug":"the-boys-of-the-dark-a-story-of-betrayal-and-redemption-in-the-deep-south","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robingabyfisher.com\/index.php\/2010\/08\/13\/the-boys-of-the-dark-a-story-of-betrayal-and-redemption-in-the-deep-south\/","title":{"rendered":"The Boys of the Dark: A Story of Betrayal and Redemption in the Deep South"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A story that garnered national attention, this is the harrowing tale of two men who suffered abuses at a reform school in Florida in the 1950s and 60s, and who banded together fifty years later to confront their attackers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael O\u2019McCarthy and Robert W. Straley were teens when they were termed \u201cincorrigible youth\u201d by authorities and ordered to attend the Florida School for Boys. They discovered in Marianna, the \u201cCity of Southern Charm,\u201d an immaculately groomed campus that looked more like an idyllic university than a reform school. But hidden behind the gates of the Florida School for Boys was a hell unlike any they could have imagined. The school\u2019s guards and administrators acted as their jailers and tormentors. The boys allegedly bore witness to assault, rape, and possibly even murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For fifty years, both men\u2014and countless others like them\u2014carried their torment in silence. But a series of unlikely events brought O\u2019McCarthy, now a successful rights activist, and Straley together, and they became determined to expose the Florida School for Boys for what they believed it to be: a youth prison with a century-long history of abuse. They embarked upon a campaign that would change their lives and inspire others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robin Gaby Fisher, a Pulitzer Prize\u2013winning journalist and author of the New York Times bestselling After the Fire, collaborates with Straley and O\u2019McCarthy to offer a riveting account of their harrowing ordeal. The Boys of the Dark goes beyond the story of the two men to expose the truth about a century-old institution and a town that adopted a Nuremberg-like code of secrecy and a government that failed to address its own wrongdoing. What emerges is a tale of strength, resolve, and vindication in the face of the kinds of terror few can imagine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Praise for The Boys of the Dark<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaunting and disturbing. The voices of the victims will forever touch my heart. To turn a deaf ear to this type of injustice is to give permission for it to continue. As a people, as a society, we should be outraged.\u201d \u2014Jennifer Thompson, coauthor of Picking Cotton<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[The Boys of the Dark] reads seamlessly\u2026. A worthy exploration of a regrettably long-lasting true-crime nightmare.\u201d \u2014Kirkus<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis deeply moving story is highly recommended to readers of heart-wrenching memoirs, 20th-century American studies, or true crime.\u201d \u2014Library Journal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The powerful story of a friendship between two men\u2015one Sikh and one skinhead\u2015that resulted in an outpouring of love and a mission to fight against hate.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A story that garnered national attention, this is the harrowing tale of two men who suffered abuses at a reform school in Florida in the 1950s and 60s, and who banded together fifty years later to confront their attackers. Michael O\u2019McCarthy and Robert W. Straley were teens when they were termed \u201cincorrigible youth\u201d by authorities … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Boys of the Dark: A Story of Betrayal and Redemption in the Deep South”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/robingabyfisher.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/boys-of-the-dark.jpg?fit=145%2C218&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robingabyfisher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robingabyfisher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robingabyfisher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robingabyfisher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robingabyfisher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/robingabyfisher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61,"href":"https:\/\/robingabyfisher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions\/61"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robingabyfisher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robingabyfisher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robingabyfisher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robingabyfisher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}