In 2019, Colson Whitehead released the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Nickel Boys, a novel based on experiences at the historic and notorious reform school that operated for 111 years. Dozier School closed in 2011, after decades of allegations of beatings, rapes, torture, and murders. The students were segregated, with Black students getting far worse treatment. An investigation that followed Dozier’s closing found over 55 unmarked graves on the land, and they continue to find potential grave sites to this day. Colson’s novel is centered on two characters, Elwood and Turner, two Black teens trying to survive at Nickel Academy, a fictionalized version of Dozier. Whitehead said he was compelled to write the novel after Trump was elected.