Preview of “The Forgotten Children of Youth Justice’s Past” Session at America’s Youth Justice Story

We are looking forward to seeing you at our national forum on September 10th! Today, we want to preview the first extended session of the day, which explores the themes of our Forgotten Children Initiative.

Text Premiere of Short Film on dark background with wrapped paper and Forgotten Children icon

“The Forgotten Children of Youth Justice’s Past” session will begin with a brief presentation by Marc Schindler painting the contours and goals of the Initiative, and the progress we’ve made so far thanks to the work of a group of volunteer researchers, family members of boys who died and were buried at the Maryland House of Reformation, forensic anthropologists, and genealogists.

We will be releasing, for the first time, national research that the Initiative has conducted about how the death and burial of children in state custody is a national issue: what happened in Maryland is not an isolated incident.
We also can’t wait to share the premiere of a short film preview spotlighting the Forgotten Children shot, produced, and edited by incredibly talented filmmakers. The research work of the Initiative is critical, but so is its drive to restore dignity and tell the stories of the children who were left to be forgotten.

photos of the speakers on the Forgotten Children panel

Following these national premieres, we’ll dive into a panel with researchers and family members deeply engaged in the work of the Initiative. Marc Schindler, Research Professor of the Practice and Senior Fellow at the Center for Youth Justice and lead of the Initiative, will facilitate a panel featuring:

Erin Kimmerle, forensic anthropologist, artist, author, and Executive Director of the Institute of Forensic Anthropology & Applied Science at the University of South Florida; author of We Carry Their Bones: The Search for Justice at the Dozier School for Boys and soon-to-be-released, Skeletal Trauma: Identification of Injuries Resulting from Human Rights Abuse and Armed Conflict
Dorothy Givens, poet and Maryland educator of 38 years; member of the Commission on the House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children; niece of Fred Ames, one of the Forgotten Children
Phyllis Hammond, Maryland Justice Advocate and Former President, Carroll County, Maryland NAACP; member of the Commission on the House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children; niece of Amos Hammond, one of the Forgotten Children.
Tyrone Walker, Director of Reentry Services at the Prisons and Justice Initiative at Georgetown University

After the panel, we’ll be joined remotely by Tananarive Due, winner of an American Book Award and an NAACP Image Award, for an author interview! We will discuss her work, her process, and the central theme of the Forum: how we can use storytelling and creative expression to tell the truth about the past and the present, and in so doing catalyze change to write a new future.

Join us on September 10th!

We hope you can join us on September 10th. The Forum could not come at a better time as the local and national conversation around the Initiative, including recent media coverage of the Maryland Commission on the House of Reformation for Colored Children in the Washington Post and others, is building momentum.

It would be easy to turn away from the uncomfortable past being unearthed, but we need to keep looking. Keep researching. Keep telling the stories of these children. And with you, keep advocating for the children who are being forgotten today.