TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - The community gathered together to remember the lives lost at Dozier School for Boys, a reform school where documented abuse happened for decades.
A service was held at the Tallahassee Memorial Gardens. A total of 40 burials are expected to take place starting Friday and over the next several weeks.
The identities are of the bodies are unknown. An organizer of the event says this marks a new beginning for everyone.
"So this is the beginning of the end. This is the final chapter of the saga for these children when they died years ago in the custody of the state at Doizer," said Art Kimbrough, Owner of Abbey Funeral Home.
The Dozier School for Boys officially closed their doors in 2011 and many are relieved that this chapter can now be put to rest.
"This is again bringing closure to all of that so the community can go forward in a positive way and in a new direction and forever the Doizer story will be in the history books," said Kimbrough.
On Wednesday, students who died in the 1914 fire at the school were reburied at the site of the original campus where their remains were found.
They were originally buried in unmarked graves. A broken stove caused the fire while the boys were locked in their dorm.
The Official White House Boys, who were students back in the 60's, have been fighting for the state to identify and properly mark the graves of those who died in the fire.
"Our feelings-- not only mine, I'm speaking for my men, our feeling is this. We don't ever want something like this to be able to happen again," said Jerry Cooper, President of The Official White House Boys. "I believe with us coming in on this thing over a decade ago a lot of good has happened."
After several years of research led by Doctor Erin Kimmerly with the University of South Florida and her archaeology team, the remains of seven people were identified.
Those boys were buried where their dorm burned down in 1914.
