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Speaker 1: You're listening to American Shadows, a production of I Heart

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Speaker 1: Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Monkey m On September,

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Speaker 1: Rose Kennedy's labor came on hard and fast. The nurse

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Speaker 1: arrived quickly, but the family physician was running behind. The

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Speaker 1: Kennedy's wanted to wait for his arrival, but the baby

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Speaker 1: had other plans. The nurse advised rose to squeeze her

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Speaker 1: legs together to prevent the birth, and when the baby's

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Speaker 1: head became visible, the nurse pushed against it. An hour later,

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Speaker 1: the doctor arrived and nature was allowed to take its course,

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Speaker 1: bringing little Rosemary into the world. After declaring her healthy,

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Speaker 1: the doctor left mm. No one realized that delaying the

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Speaker 1: birth had caused a lack of oxygen to Rosemary's brain.

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Speaker 1: They only noticed years later when she took longer to

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Speaker 1: learn than her siblings. Teachers recommended that Rosemary repeat kindergarten

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Speaker 1: and the first grade. Her parents, who demanded the best

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Speaker 1: from their children, were embarrassed. Determined to fix their daughter,

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Speaker 1: they paid for special tutoring and experimental injections. Through it all,

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Speaker 1: Rosemary tried to keep up with her brothers and sisters

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Speaker 1: and desperately wanted to please her parents. Despite her best

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Speaker 1: efforts and those of her teachers, she couldn't seem to

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Speaker 1: advance past the intellectual age of ten or eleven. While

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Speaker 1: rose looked for a way to cure their daughter, Joe

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Speaker 1: turned his attention to his son, Joseph Jr. Fearing Rosemary's

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Speaker 1: disability would tarnish his son's chances in politics, he sent

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Speaker 1: her to boarding schools where she would be out of

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Speaker 1: the public eye. A Rosemary couldn't help but notice her

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Speaker 1: father's disapproval. She wrote to him, I would do anything

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Speaker 1: to make you so happy. I hate to disappoint you

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Speaker 1: in any way. Come to see me very soon. Her

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Speaker 1: teachers commented that Rosemary was always optimistic, always cheerful. Over

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Speaker 1: the years, she flourished under the care of English Montessori schools,

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Speaker 1: but when she grew older and returned to the States,

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Speaker 1: Rosemary began acting out. Joe looked into surgery for his daughter.

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Speaker 1: The botanies had been performed on those diagnosed with intellectual disabilities,

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Speaker 1: gay men and lesbians, criminals and women considered overly promiscuous,

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Speaker 1: but the American Medical Association strongly recommended against the surgery

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Speaker 1: due to a high death rate still, Joe arranged for

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Speaker 1: the operation without telling his wife or family. Doctors shaved

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Speaker 1: Rosemary's head and strapped her to the operating table. They

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Speaker 1: kept her awake during the procedure, telling her to sing

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Speaker 1: or talk while they cut away parts of her brain,

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Speaker 1: stopping when Rosemary fell silent. The surgery reduced her mental

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Speaker 1: capacity to that of a two year old. Joe had

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Speaker 1: her institutionalized in New York, refusing to allow the family

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Speaker 1: to see her. He told the public she was away

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Speaker 1: studying to become a teacher. He never saw his daughter again.

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Speaker 1: Her brother Jack often snuck visits to see his sister.

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Speaker 1: Rosemary lived the rest of her life in a cottage

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Speaker 1: in Wisconsin. She died in two thousand five, surrounded by

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Speaker 1: her surviving siblings and the pets she loved to spoil.

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Speaker 1: Rosemary never realized the changes her brother made when he

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Speaker 1: became president. Though his family called him Jack, we know

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Speaker 1: him as John F. Kennedy. He felt research and education

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Speaker 1: for people diagnosed with an intellectual disability was blacking and

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Speaker 1: wanted bold new approaches for their care. He once said

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Speaker 1: that people with such disabilities need no longer be alien

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Speaker 1: to our affections or beyond the help of our communities,

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Speaker 1: and because of his love for Rosemary, JFK did something else.

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Speaker 1: He paved the way for things hidden in the dark

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Speaker 1: to see the light of day. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. Welcome

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Speaker 1: to American Shadows. Dr Samuel Gridley Howe stood on the

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Speaker 1: lawn of the school he had created and smiled as

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Speaker 1: the children played. They were unaware of his smile or

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Speaker 1: the joy he had in watching them. The children were blind,

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Speaker 1: he didn't believe they should be objects of pity, nor

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Speaker 1: that they deserved less of an education than anyone else.

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Speaker 1: He had started work with people with visual impairments in

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Speaker 1: eighty nine as director at the New England Asylum for

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Speaker 1: the Blind, and the research took him to Europe to

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Speaker 1: study similar programs. Back at home, in eighteen thirty two,

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Speaker 1: his school's first students arrived, arranging from six to twenty

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Speaker 1: one years of age. A wealthy investor donated his home

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Speaker 1: as the school's classroom area, and eventually the asylum was

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Speaker 1: renamed the Perkins School for the Blind. As Hal watched

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Speaker 1: the children, he had high hopes for the school and

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Speaker 1: the changes it would make in the students lives. That

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Speaker 1: hope wasn't misplaced. The school thrived. In eighteen thirty seven,

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Speaker 1: he invited a child who was both deaf and blind

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Speaker 1: to attend Perkins. Under the care and guidance of the school,

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Speaker 1: Laura Bridgeman became the first deaf and blind student to

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Speaker 1: receive a full and successful education, bringing fame and attention

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Speaker 1: to both the school and doctor. How his personal life

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Speaker 1: flourished too. He had married well Julia Ward was the

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Speaker 1: daughter of a successful New York banker and had talents

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Speaker 1: and ambitions of her own. She was an outspoken up bolitionists, suffragist,

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Speaker 1: and songwriter. She had written the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

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Speaker 1: Before long, the House helped found other schools in Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky,

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Speaker 1: and Tennessee. By et eight, the Perkins School was a

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Speaker 1: well established success. The House set their sights on creating

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Speaker 1: school for those with intellectual disabilities. They partnered with Doorthea Dix,

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Speaker 1: an activist who was a champion for indigenous populations, women

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Speaker 1: in nursing, and mental health. Like the House, she thought

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Speaker 1: anyone experiencing mental trauma or an intellectual disability deserved every

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Speaker 1: chance to reach their potential. Today, she's accredited with making

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Speaker 1: drastic changes in the medical field by challenging what was

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Speaker 1: known about healing and illness. She had spent years studying

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Speaker 1: how reformers in Europe treated and cared for people with

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Speaker 1: mental illnesses. Upon her return to the States, she visited

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Speaker 1: hospitals across the country in the hopes of making positive changes.

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Speaker 1: Finding are inadequate, Dix lobbied politicians for state hospitals and

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Speaker 1: funding to help, though she was unsuccessful in persuading the government.

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Speaker 1: Dix helped to establish asylums in New Jersey, North Carolina,

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Speaker 1: and Illinois. During the Civil War, Dix treated both Union

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Speaker 1: and Confederate soldiers, earning her respect from both sides, though

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Speaker 1: female nurses were looked down on at the time, and

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Speaker 1: she pushed for formal training and more opportunities in the

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Speaker 1: medical field for women. After comparing notes, how and Dix

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Speaker 1: opened their school in Massachusetts in eighteen fifty one with

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Speaker 1: a total of ten students, and not only did they

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Speaker 1: supply the children with a proper education, but they taught

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Speaker 1: practical skills in the hopes that students would be able

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Speaker 1: to support themselves and become productive members of the community.

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Speaker 1: They took on students with more severe symptoms. Although not

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Speaker 1: every student went on to earn an education or become

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Speaker 1: self sufficient, How and Dix successfully helped the majority of

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Speaker 1: the children they oversaw. Ap parents from as far as

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Speaker 1: Texas began sending their children to the school. Even so,

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Speaker 1: the medical community continued to consider their approach experimental, although

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Speaker 1: how Indix preferred the term school. More began calling the

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Speaker 1: school's asylums in eighteen sixty seven. Determined to make even

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Speaker 1: more changes in the lives of others, How began to

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Speaker 1: teach deaf students to lip read. For blind students, he

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Speaker 1: developed an embossed letter system that remained the preferred format

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Speaker 1: until Braille came into use in the late eighteen hundreds.

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Speaker 1: Between eighteen seventy and eighteen ninety, the public's attitude toward

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Speaker 1: people with intellectual disabilities changed. Instead of a push to

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Speaker 1: make the deviant undeviant, as society put it, the focus

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Speaker 1: shifted on removing them from society indefinitely, and the more

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Speaker 1: remote the asylum, the better. Doctor how continued his work

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Speaker 1: in rehabilitation until his death in eighteen seventy six. The

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Speaker 1: school carried on, still using his methods to help people,

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Speaker 1: while others chose to permanently rehome them. A society's philosophy

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Speaker 1: had become out of sight, out of mind, and in

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Speaker 1: seven How school was moved to a more remote location,

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Speaker 1: are tract just outside of Waltham. His methods of teaching

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Speaker 1: and caring for the children had fallen from favor. Instead,

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Speaker 1: many in the scientific community had taken a work of

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Speaker 1: natural science and begun to twist it, making cases for

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Speaker 1: a drastic approach to dealing with people with intellectual disabilities

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Speaker 1: and mental illnesses. The once sunny yards where How had

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Speaker 1: watched the children play We're about to change into something

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Speaker 1: much darker. Charles Darwin's book on the Origin of the

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Speaker 1: Species took the world by storm in eighteen denine from

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Speaker 1: religious leaders to scientists. The contents and words were challenged, praised,

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Speaker 1: or misconstrued, depending on vocation and beliefs. Everyone had an opinion,

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Speaker 1: and for many opinion was fact. The book renewed interest

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Speaker 1: in Gregor Mendel's work in genetics. Some argued that intelligence, character,

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Speaker 1: and morality were rooted in biology nature instead of nurture.

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Speaker 1: These theories were derailments from both Mendel and Darwin's scientific findings.

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Speaker 1: A misconstrued or not that didn't stop the progression of

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Speaker 1: some to believe that all people with disabilities came from

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Speaker 1: poor breeding and genetics. In the eighteen eighties, author R. L.

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Speaker 1: Dugdale wrote that society's problems were the direct result of

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Speaker 1: overbreeding among the lower classes. Environment, he claimed, had less

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Speaker 1: to do with crime, disease, and ability than genetics, and

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Speaker 1: he didn't just supply a problem. He had an answer, eugenics,

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Speaker 1: which is basically the concept of trying to improve the

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Speaker 1: genetic qualities of people through selective reproduction. The theory was

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Speaker 1: that people with what were deemed poor character traits, intellectual

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Speaker 1: or physical disabilities, or criminal or immoral behaviors should not

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Speaker 1: have children. Meanwhile, those deemed to have desirable physical and

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Speaker 1: mental traits and who were wealthy should have children. Francis

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Speaker 1: Galton coined the term eugenics in eighteen thirty three, but

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Speaker 1: it's an idea that's circulated in many cultures throughout the ages.

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Speaker 1: Back in four hundred b c e. Those considered unfit

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Speaker 1: were forbidden to marry or had forced sterilization procedures. Over

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Speaker 1: the centuries, different cultures had different ideas of how far

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Speaker 1: to take this practice. If you're already thinking of Nazi

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Speaker 1: Germany as a later example of eugenics. Then you'd be correct.

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Speaker 1: Doug Bail had come up with his theory regarding humans

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Speaker 1: by loosely taking from Mendel's work on using genetics to

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Speaker 1: produce better and new varieties of vegetables, and from Darwin's

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Speaker 1: observations that strong, healthy animals lived to propagate their species

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Speaker 1: in the wild. In his opinion, the lower class was

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Speaker 1: a burden on society, and he made a case for

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Speaker 1: preventing them from having children. People in the United States, Canada, Sweden, England,

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Speaker 1: and other countries across Europe all believed in eugenics in

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Speaker 1: some way or another. These societies began to fear that

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Speaker 1: too many people who were not the fittest, healthiest, or

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Speaker 1: most intelligent would water down the human race. They began

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Speaker 1: to think reform for people with intellectual or physical disabilities

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Speaker 1: wasn't the right course of action. Instead, they believed in

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Speaker 1: preventing their existence. For instance, doctors and prompted parents to

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Speaker 1: forego life saving treatment for newborns who had visible defects.

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Speaker 1: In their opinion, these children would grow to burden society,

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Speaker 1: and at the very least they certainly couldn't contribute to

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Speaker 1: furthering the human race. Despite what how and Dix had accomplished.

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Speaker 1: Such children who survived, or those who experienced an injury

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Speaker 1: or ailment, were sent to asylums and institutions to live

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Speaker 1: shuddered away from the rest of the world. Some, like

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Speaker 1: one doctor Walter Fernald, agreed with doug Dale. He suggested

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Speaker 1: that children pass government issued i Q tests early in life.

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Speaker 1: Those who scored below average would be removed from society indefinitely.

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Speaker 1: Fernald believed that their prompt and early removal would benefit

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Speaker 1: the human race. At the time, institutions and asylums seemed

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Speaker 1: the logical place to keep them, but state run institutions

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Speaker 1: were already understaffed and cost a great deal. Fueling the

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Speaker 1: controversy regarding how much of a burden people who had

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Speaker 1: intellectual disabilities placed on society, Parents were increasingly pressured to

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Speaker 1: surrender children who scored low or had disabilities to institutions.

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Speaker 1: They were often told the children would live better lives,

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Speaker 1: that they would be given the proper care they needed

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Speaker 1: without burdening their families. And despite how in Dix's success,

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Speaker 1: Fernald claimed that no amount of education could improve these

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Speaker 1: children and that they could never function in society. Instead,

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Speaker 1: he cherry picked the work of esteemed scientists like Mendel

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Speaker 1: and Darwin to prove that these children were greatly inferior,

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Speaker 1: offering little to no benefit in furthering mankind. If a

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Speaker 1: parent refused to surrender a child with an intellectual disability,

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Speaker 1: doctors in the community alike shamed them. Under the guise

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Speaker 1: of child welfare, the state took parents to court, where

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Speaker 1: they frequently lost custody. Researcher Henry Goddard insisted that these

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Speaker 1: children weren't just a burden, they were a threat. He

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Speaker 1: feared they would escape, and without any noticeable physical malformations,

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Speaker 1: they might go unnoticed long enough to reproduce, which would

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Speaker 1: deteriorate the human species. Thousands of children deemed feeble were

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Speaker 1: sent to live in asylums and institutions across the country.

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Speaker 1: Taking over as the third director of House Facility, doctor

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Speaker 1: Fernald set out to make a radical departure from the

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Speaker 1: school's original purpose. He increased the residency from four hundred

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Speaker 1: to thirteen hundred. To support the growing population. He purchased

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Speaker 1: another sixteen hundred acres. Traveling clinics became the norm in

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Speaker 1: many states, the teachers and parents could bring children in

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Speaker 1: for testing. After Fernald died in nine four, the school

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Speaker 1: changed its name, becoming the Walter E. Fernald State School.

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Speaker 1: They even expanded their parameters, taking on not just children

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Speaker 1: with intellectual disabilities or mental illnesses, but those society deemed

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Speaker 1: as normal with delinquent behaviors labeled as troubled. Boys who

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Speaker 1: acted out, behaved badly, or acted dangerously in any way

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Speaker 1: were sent to the Fernald School. Poverty and crime in

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Speaker 1: overcrowded cities had skyrocketed, and those like Fernald put the

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Speaker 1: blame on immigrants. They claimed these problems were the result

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Speaker 1: of negative eugenics. Some of the country's elite became firm

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Speaker 1: believers and used their influence to encourage the elimination of

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Speaker 1: undesirables as a means to curb crime and reduce a literacy.

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Speaker 1: At the height of the American eugenics era, and the

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Speaker 1: message was clear, the human race could be free of

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Speaker 1: disabilities and many diseases if the afflicted were prevented from reproducing.

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Speaker 1: Everyone would fit a certain standard. Those of certain racial

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Speaker 1: backgrounds or who acted different, or who had disabilities were

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Speaker 1: less than everyone. Else. Freddie Boyce had been taken from

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Speaker 1: his abuse of mother when he was seven. At eight,

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Speaker 1: his equally abuse of foster mother died, though he had

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Speaker 1: no formal education, and Freddie passed the IQ test, but

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Speaker 1: instead of another foster home, he was sent to Fernald,

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Speaker 1: and that's where he was kept for eleven years. He

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Speaker 1: was one of the lucky ones. Some were told they'd

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Speaker 1: be there for life. There was no love, no affection.

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Speaker 1: The children were made to feel like they were never

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Speaker 1: supposed to exist, and there were a lot of them.

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Speaker 1: Thirty six beds were crammed into each dorm room. At

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Speaker 1: its peak, two thousand, five hundred children resided at Fernald.

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Speaker 1: The boys received little education, guards were often violent, and

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Speaker 1: some of the boys suffered other abuse as well. Freddie

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00:18:01,840 --> 00:18:06,040
Speaker 1: recalled when Joseph Almeida arrived, his father dropped him off,

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Speaker 1: telling his son to wait in the hall. Then Joe

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00:18:09,359 --> 00:18:14,520
Speaker 1: Sor drove away, leaving his son behind. A one night

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00:18:14,640 --> 00:18:18,520
Speaker 1: and Howie, a boy with intellectual disabilities, couldn't keep quiet.

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00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:21,800
Speaker 1: The nurse had all the boys line up, then she

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Speaker 1: beat them with a wooden coat hanger. Terrified, Howie wet himself,

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00:18:26,440 --> 00:18:31,520
Speaker 1: earning a second beating. By the nineteen fifties, they had television,

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00:18:31,880 --> 00:18:35,240
Speaker 1: which brought the outside world to the school, and some

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00:18:35,320 --> 00:18:38,720
Speaker 1: of the older boys without disabilities began to realize there

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00:18:38,800 --> 00:18:41,919
Speaker 1: was nothing wrong with them. While they were forced to

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00:18:41,920 --> 00:18:44,000
Speaker 1: do much of the labor that kept the place running,

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00:18:44,400 --> 00:18:48,800
Speaker 1: they began to plan and escape. Joey Almeida recalled working

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Speaker 1: in the lab slicing up the brains of the boys

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Speaker 1: who had died, also that scientists could study them. Those

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00:18:56,320 --> 00:19:00,520
Speaker 1: who escaped were quickly found and returned. Guards stripped them

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Speaker 1: to their shorts, shaved their heads, and locked them in

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Speaker 1: solitary confinement. Most were terrified to talk about an escape

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Speaker 1: for fear of what would happen if they were caught.

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Speaker 1: Other boys so captured didn't matter they were already dead.

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Speaker 1: But Charlie Hatch inspired some of them. In the summer

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Speaker 1: of nineteen fifty seven, he had escaped, living on the

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Speaker 1: streets for weeks. On his return, he told the others

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Speaker 1: that the school attendants who came to get him treated

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Speaker 1: him like an animal, and that the cops had done

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00:19:29,440 --> 00:19:33,600
Speaker 1: nothing to stop it. Something has to be done, Charlie said.

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Speaker 1: It all came to a head on November four, of

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Speaker 1: ninety seven. Joey had just returned from his normal mourning

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Speaker 1: chores when he noticed a boy named Curly talking to

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Speaker 1: Charlie in the lunch room. Many of the boys, like Charlie,

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Speaker 1: were nearly full grown and capable of taking on the guards.

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00:19:52,280 --> 00:19:55,040
Speaker 1: Before long, the two had convinced a dozen more to

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00:19:55,119 --> 00:19:59,359
Speaker 1: join the pact to escape, Joey being one of them.

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00:19:59,400 --> 00:20:01,639
Speaker 1: At three p um the boys who didn't want to

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00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:04,720
Speaker 1: fight but did want to escape, gathered in the day

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00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:08,800
Speaker 1: room to await the chaos. One of the boys started

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00:20:08,800 --> 00:20:11,800
Speaker 1: a fire in the closet. An attendant rushed into the

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00:20:11,840 --> 00:20:14,840
Speaker 1: room to pull the fire alarm. The boys tackled him,

292
00:20:14,960 --> 00:20:19,160
Speaker 1: then through the employee outside. A second attendant promptly left

293
00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:23,200
Speaker 1: when he realized who was easily outnumbered. During the commotion,

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00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:25,919
Speaker 1: a boy in the solitary cells used a wire hanger

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00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:30,160
Speaker 1: to unlock his door and then all the doors. Meanwhile,

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00:20:30,400 --> 00:20:33,160
Speaker 1: Joey and the others began to set up defenses against

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00:20:33,160 --> 00:20:36,000
Speaker 1: the remaining guards, and some of the boys began to

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Speaker 1: destroy whatever they could. Sirens wailed in the distance. When

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00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:44,040
Speaker 1: the fire department arrived, one of the men shouted to

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00:20:44,040 --> 00:20:47,480
Speaker 1: the boys asking if they were okay they were. The

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00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:50,160
Speaker 1: boys replied, the fire was out and no one was hurt.

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00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:55,360
Speaker 1: The superintendent and police demanded the boys surrender and come out.

303
00:20:56,400 --> 00:20:59,680
Speaker 1: As you can imagine, though the boys had trust issues.

304
00:21:00,440 --> 00:21:03,920
Speaker 1: They declined by sneaking around the corner, grabbing the fire

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00:21:03,960 --> 00:21:08,720
Speaker 1: hose and paurning it on the men. My nightfall, swarms

306
00:21:08,720 --> 00:21:12,520
Speaker 1: of state police showed up. Outnumbered and without a plan

307
00:21:12,800 --> 00:21:16,480
Speaker 1: and no food, the boys surrendered and were taken away.

308
00:21:17,800 --> 00:21:20,159
Speaker 1: They ended up at the Bridgewater State Hospital for the

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Speaker 1: criminally Insane, which was more of a prison than a hospital.

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Speaker 1: Two days later they appeared in court. Eight boys were

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00:21:28,520 --> 00:21:33,680
Speaker 1: kept imprisoned at Bridgewater indefinitely. The boys, all of them,

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00:21:33,800 --> 00:21:38,119
Speaker 1: were labeled as dangerous, but the public, now having heard

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00:21:38,160 --> 00:21:41,680
Speaker 1: and seen what treatment they had endured, called for changes.

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00:21:42,680 --> 00:21:45,320
Speaker 1: They were slow in coming. It took a lawsuit in

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00:21:45,320 --> 00:21:48,480
Speaker 1: the early nineteen seventies for the institution to hire adequate

316
00:21:48,560 --> 00:22:07,919
Speaker 1: and qualified staff. Finally, Fernald closed its doors in the

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00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:11,879
Speaker 1: state of Massachusetts hired Sandra Marlowe to create a library

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Speaker 1: at the Fernald Institute, honoring Samuel Howe. Being the oldest

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Speaker 1: and largest mental institution in the Northeast, Sandra had a

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00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:24,080
Speaker 1: lot of material to sift through, making her task more difficult.

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Speaker 1: She didn't have a background in the history of mental health.

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00:22:28,040 --> 00:22:31,280
Speaker 1: For that, she relied on the locals and former resident

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00:22:31,359 --> 00:22:36,720
Speaker 1: turned institute bus driver Joey Almeida. A While Joey helped

324
00:22:36,720 --> 00:22:40,800
Speaker 1: her sift through countless documents, Sandra listened to his stories

325
00:22:40,920 --> 00:22:45,640
Speaker 1: and became more interested in Fernald's history. Freddie Boyce, who

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00:22:45,720 --> 00:22:51,000
Speaker 1: still lived nearby, also offered his assistance. One afternoon, the

327
00:22:51,080 --> 00:22:53,840
Speaker 1: three came across a letter from a former superintendent to

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Speaker 1: a parent requesting their son's participation in a nutritional study

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00:22:57,720 --> 00:23:02,600
Speaker 1: noted as the Science Club. Participation was listed as voluntary,

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00:23:02,640 --> 00:23:06,359
Speaker 1: of course, if the parents agreed, the test would require

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00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:11,199
Speaker 1: blood samples after the child consumed a predetermined amount of calcium.

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Speaker 1: Those in the study would get additional perks, baseball games

333
00:23:14,680 --> 00:23:18,399
Speaker 1: in an extra quart of milk every day. Sandra hadn't

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00:23:18,400 --> 00:23:22,240
Speaker 1: been told about any study and kept digging. What she

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00:23:22,320 --> 00:23:27,120
Speaker 1: found shocked her. Some parents had agreed, but others either

336
00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:31,359
Speaker 1: did not or didn't care to respond. Either way, the

337
00:23:31,400 --> 00:23:36,240
Speaker 1: school selected additional participants without their knowledge or consent. In

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00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:40,680
Speaker 1: society considered these children invisible or disposable, no one would

339
00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:45,000
Speaker 1: care or even notice. The study had little to do

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00:23:45,040 --> 00:23:47,679
Speaker 1: with the effects of calcium, though it was funded by

341
00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:51,880
Speaker 1: Quaker oats and run by M. I. T. The children

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00:23:51,880 --> 00:23:56,639
Speaker 1: were fed cereal that had milk tainted with radioactive calcium.

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00:23:56,880 --> 00:24:00,000
Speaker 1: The researchers wanted to know how a serial heavy diet

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00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:04,159
Speaker 1: might affect the body's ability to digest iron and calcium.

345
00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:07,280
Speaker 1: The radioactive calcium made it possible to trace the material

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00:24:07,320 --> 00:24:11,160
Speaker 1: and the digestive tract through blood and waste. The Quaker

347
00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:14,240
Speaker 1: wanted evidence that their cereal was nutritionally on par with

348
00:24:14,280 --> 00:24:19,080
Speaker 1: a competitor cream of wheat. Of course, the experiment bombed.

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00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:23,119
Speaker 1: All forty boys who participated suffered ill effects, and the

350
00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:28,520
Speaker 1: Quaker canceled the experiment. Sandra couldn't believe what they had found,

351
00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:32,639
Speaker 1: and suddenly the school was replacing her with another librarian

352
00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:36,240
Speaker 1: to finish the job. Worried the documents and evidence would

353
00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:39,159
Speaker 1: soon disappear, Sandra and the men went back to the

354
00:24:39,200 --> 00:24:43,560
Speaker 1: school in the cover of darkness. For hours, they sifted

355
00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:47,760
Speaker 1: through boxes and books, taking proof of the experiment with them.

356
00:24:47,880 --> 00:24:51,680
Speaker 1: After she was fired, Sandra remained determined to bring justice

357
00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:55,760
Speaker 1: for the victims. When Dr Clemens Benda, the head of

358
00:24:55,800 --> 00:25:00,679
Speaker 1: Fernald's laboratory, died. Sandra came up with a plan. She

359
00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:03,439
Speaker 1: met with Freddie and Joey at doctor Bende's estate sale.

360
00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:07,639
Speaker 1: Assandra wandered through the rows of items. Freddie and Joey

361
00:25:07,800 --> 00:25:09,800
Speaker 1: snuck up to the attic to see what else they

362
00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:14,040
Speaker 1: could find. The men stuffed pages of experiment documentation into

363
00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:17,879
Speaker 1: books that they then bought. One document listed the names

364
00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:22,159
Speaker 1: of all forty test subjects. In nineteen ninety eight, a

365
00:25:22,240 --> 00:25:25,960
Speaker 1: small group of Fernald survivors filed suit against Quaker Oats

366
00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:29,439
Speaker 1: and m I. T. The scandal was an embarrassment for

367
00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:33,280
Speaker 1: both the college and the company. The Quaker Oats immediately

368
00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:36,120
Speaker 1: put out a statement denying that had a leading part

369
00:25:36,359 --> 00:25:39,640
Speaker 1: and only provided the grant money, and Oats of claiming

370
00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:42,280
Speaker 1: the radioactive calcium had been m i T s idea.

371
00:25:43,240 --> 00:25:45,840
Speaker 1: The judge didn't see it that way. He ordered the

372
00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:49,040
Speaker 1: college and the company together to make a settlement of

373
00:25:49,119 --> 00:25:53,200
Speaker 1: one point eight five million dollars and divided up among

374
00:25:53,240 --> 00:26:01,960
Speaker 1: the thirty remaining survivors. There's more to this story. Stick

375
00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:04,800
Speaker 1: around after this brief sponsor break to hear all about it.

376
00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:18,480
Speaker 1: The day was unseasonably warm on March second of nineteen

377
00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:22,119
Speaker 1: fifty five. The students at Booker T. Washington High School

378
00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:26,440
Speaker 1: didn't mind. Though school had led out early. Fifteen year

379
00:26:26,440 --> 00:26:29,159
Speaker 1: old Claudette made her way to the city bus stop.

380
00:26:30,119 --> 00:26:33,520
Speaker 1: After a short wait, she boarded, careful to stick to

381
00:26:33,520 --> 00:26:36,480
Speaker 1: the rules for black people like her, sit at the

382
00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:40,560
Speaker 1: back and don't make eye contact, don't touch, especially that

383
00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:44,240
Speaker 1: when she was younger, a white boy had asked to

384
00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:49,320
Speaker 1: touch her hands. Innocently enough, Claudette had offered an open palm.

385
00:26:49,359 --> 00:26:52,480
Speaker 1: The boy's mother had stepped between them and backhanded Claudette

386
00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:56,840
Speaker 1: across the Now the hard realities of segregation and racism

387
00:26:56,920 --> 00:27:02,600
Speaker 1: in Montgomery, Alabama were an everyday occurrence. Claudette realized that

388
00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:06,119
Speaker 1: many white Americans had little tolerance for black people and

389
00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:09,320
Speaker 1: anyone else who didn't fit into their definition of acceptable.

390
00:27:10,119 --> 00:27:12,960
Speaker 1: As a young child, she knew that some people thought

391
00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:17,440
Speaker 1: the color of her skin made her less human. As

392
00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:20,399
Speaker 1: more people boarded the bus, all Claudette wanted was to

393
00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:23,280
Speaker 1: get home early enough to do her homework and her chores.

394
00:27:24,200 --> 00:27:26,840
Speaker 1: Maybe she would even get in some free time before dinner.

395
00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:30,199
Speaker 1: She lived with her great aunt and uncle, whom she

396
00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:33,720
Speaker 1: loved as though they were her biological parents. Her dad

397
00:27:33,760 --> 00:27:36,679
Speaker 1: had abandoned the family, and her mom faded from the

398
00:27:36,680 --> 00:27:40,520
Speaker 1: picture when she found she couldn't afford her or her sister, Delphine.

399
00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:45,440
Speaker 1: Ambitious and smart, Claudette had high hopes for her future.

400
00:27:46,320 --> 00:27:48,560
Speaker 1: Many of her classmates had no idea what they wanted

401
00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:50,560
Speaker 1: to do with their lives, but she had her sight

402
00:27:50,640 --> 00:27:54,240
Speaker 1: set on becoming a civil rights attorney. As she sat

403
00:27:54,280 --> 00:27:56,879
Speaker 1: on the bus that afternoon and staring out the window

404
00:27:56,960 --> 00:27:59,800
Speaker 1: and contemplating a paper she had to write, she no

405
00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:03,520
Speaker 1: the bus hadn't moved. The white section of the bus

406
00:28:03,560 --> 00:28:06,520
Speaker 1: was full, and the bus driver ordered her and some

407
00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:10,879
Speaker 1: other black passengers to give up their seats. Someone complied,

408
00:28:11,320 --> 00:28:14,840
Speaker 1: but not all. The heavily pregnant woman sitting next to

409
00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:20,520
Speaker 1: her refused, sparking something deep inside. Claudette had had enough.

410
00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:24,520
Speaker 1: Black people weren't allowed to eat at the same lunch counters,

411
00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:26,800
Speaker 1: or sit in the same movie houses as white people,

412
00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:30,720
Speaker 1: or even enter some businesses. She was tired of being

413
00:28:30,720 --> 00:28:33,760
Speaker 1: made to feel less than human. She wasn't less than

414
00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:37,600
Speaker 1: anyone for any reason, and on that hot day, Claudett

415
00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:41,920
Speaker 1: decided that she was going to make herself heard. Claudette

416
00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:44,320
Speaker 1: and the pregnant woman had both paid the same fair

417
00:28:44,400 --> 00:28:48,680
Speaker 1: everyone else had, and both women held their ground. The

418
00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:51,800
Speaker 1: police were summoned, and although a black man gave up

419
00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:55,200
Speaker 1: his seat for the pregnant woman, caught it refused to move.

420
00:28:56,200 --> 00:28:59,479
Speaker 1: She didn't go quietly, shouting that her constitutional rights were

421
00:28:59,520 --> 00:29:02,280
Speaker 1: being violent at it as police handcuffed her and physically

422
00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:05,560
Speaker 1: removed her from the bus. The incident landed her in

423
00:29:05,640 --> 00:29:09,680
Speaker 1: jail with charges of disturbing the peace, violating segregation laws,

424
00:29:09,920 --> 00:29:13,680
Speaker 1: and assaulting a police officer. Though she hadn't assaulted anyone,

425
00:29:15,080 --> 00:29:18,240
Speaker 1: Claudett wasn't the first nor the last black person to

426
00:29:18,280 --> 00:29:20,320
Speaker 1: be dragged off a bus for not giving up their

427
00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:24,160
Speaker 1: seat for a white person. Nine months later, Rosa Parks

428
00:29:24,240 --> 00:29:26,640
Speaker 1: became the face of change when she refused to give

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Speaker 1: up her seat, but Claudette's great aunt and uncle didn't

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Speaker 1: have the money to get her out of jail. When

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00:29:32,840 --> 00:29:35,760
Speaker 1: the minister of the local church heard, he posted bail,

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00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:39,200
Speaker 1: telling her that she had brought a revolution to Montgomery.

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Speaker 1: But months later, civil rights leaders didn't make an issue

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Speaker 1: of Claudette's case. They felt most Americans wouldn't sympathize with

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00:29:47,280 --> 00:29:50,080
Speaker 1: her because she lived in a low income housing district,

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00:29:50,440 --> 00:29:54,840
Speaker 1: wasn't as polished as Rosa, then had darker skin. Even

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00:29:54,880 --> 00:29:57,120
Speaker 1: her great aunt told her to stay quiet and to

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Speaker 1: let Parks be the voice because white people liked her.

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Speaker 1: The juvenile court convicted Claudett on all three accounts. She

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00:30:05,480 --> 00:30:09,280
Speaker 1: appealed and the court dropped all charges except assault, despite

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Speaker 1: testimony otherwise. Two months later, her attorney suggested she take

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Speaker 1: part in a civil lawsuit against Alabama and Montgomery bus

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00:30:17,120 --> 00:30:21,920
Speaker 1: segregation laws. The next year, four other black women plaintiffs

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00:30:21,960 --> 00:30:25,040
Speaker 1: took part in the suit, though Claudette was the youngest.

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Speaker 1: The case escalated to the Supreme Court, where she described

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00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:35,120
Speaker 1: her arrest, but she added more perspective. She told the

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00:30:35,120 --> 00:30:37,520
Speaker 1: court how dangerous it was for a black person to

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00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:40,960
Speaker 1: stand up for equal rights, how such actions were often

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00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:45,360
Speaker 1: met with extreme violence. She recounted how terrified she was

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00:30:45,400 --> 00:30:48,520
Speaker 1: in jail with guards who made remarks on her brass eyes.

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Speaker 1: Claudet's testimony moved the court. They ordered Montgomery County and

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Speaker 1: the entire state of Alabama to end bus segregation laws.

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Speaker 1: There would be no hero is welcome, though her community

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Speaker 1: branded her as a troublemaker after struggling to fit in

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Speaker 1: and find employment, she moved to Manhattan, where she worked

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Speaker 1: as a nurses aid. In two thousand four, she finally retired.

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Speaker 1: In a two thousand five interview, she was asked if

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Speaker 1: she would have changed her actions that day in Claudette

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Speaker 1: didn't hesitate. I feel very proud of what I did,

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Speaker 1: she responded, A fifteen year old had proven that when

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Speaker 1: it comes to human rights, sometimes one person can make

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Speaker 1: a difference. American Shadows as hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum. This

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00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:50,800
Speaker 1: episode was written by Michelle Muto, researched by Ali Steed,

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00:31:51,080 --> 00:31:54,640
Speaker 1: and produced by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young, with executive

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00:31:54,680 --> 00:31:59,400
Speaker 1: producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn

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Speaker 1: more about this show, visit Grim and Mild dot com.

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Speaker 1: From more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. M