The book containing the names of boys who met their end at the former Maryland House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children is thick and seemingly endless.
The formerly segregated detention center — now the Cheltenham Youth Detention Facility in Prince George’s County — abused boys as young as 5 who were sent there.
At least 230 unmarked graves have been discovered at the site, and it’s possible more have yet to be found. More than a century after their deaths went unrecognized, the state is now working to honor them.
Boys were sent to the House of Reformation for minor offenses during the Reconstruction Era in the decades following the Civil War. Once there, they were forced into labor at nearby farms and factories.
“This is where they came to die,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said at an unveiling on Wednesday. “Today is an important reminder that darkness does not win, light does.”
Officials unveiled a commemorative marker as a first step toward acknowledging what happened there.
“Here they were whipped and beaten — their humanity taken away from them,” Moore said. “Boys died of disease and exhaustion here.”
State Sen. Will Smith said a newly formed state commission plans to go much further. He said the commission will conduct forensic analysis, genealogical research and go through historical records to learn more about what took place at the House of Reformation.
The number of known unmarked graves there, he said, will grow substantially now that the state is no longer “turning a blind eye.”
“I would hazard to guess that we’re just at the very tip of the iceberg,” Smith said. “There’s a potter’s field there. I think that number is going to grow substantially.”
The turning point came in 1960, when a 13-year-old boy successfully challenged the legality of the segregation and abuse at the site.
“There is no amount of hatred, and there is no amount of animosity, and there is no amount of racism that is going to hide the truth,” Moore said, to thunderous applause. “This state is committed to finding every burial site.”
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