TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida House is formally apologizing for decades of abuse at a north Florida reform school and to the families of four young black men accused of raping a white woman 68 years ago in what's now seen as a case of racial injustice.
The House unanimously passed two resolutions Tuesday acknowledging the state's misdeeds involving the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys and the group known as the "Groveland Four."
Men who were sent to the Dozier school in the 1950s and 1960s have worked to get the state to acknowledge beatings and sexual abuse they endured for petty infractions.
The House separately apologized to relatives of the "Groveland Four." One of the four men was killed during a manhunt and the other three were convicted with dubious evidence.