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Research Reveals That Black Children were Fed to Hogs and Used as Alligator Bait in the Early 1900s

THE WESTSIDE GAZETTE — August 2019 will mark 400 years of the first documented arrival of Africans brought to America as indentured servants. Children suffered and continue to suffer cruelties such as sex slaves, forced child labor, physical abuse, and in some cases, human cannibalism in United States. These cruelties are a big part of human trafficking where body organs and other body parts are sold to wealthy people. These atrocities, abuse, and modern-day slavery will plague America like an incurable cancer until we address this ugly past.

Published

7 years ago

July 16, 2019

Carma Henry

By The Westside Gazette

NEW ORLEANS, LA — August 2019 will mark 400 years of the first documented arrival of Africans brought to America as indentured servants. Children suffered and continue to suffer cruelties such as sex slaves, forced child labor, physical abuse, and in some cases, human cannibalism in United States. These cruelties are a big part of human trafficking where body organs and other body parts are sold to wealthy people. These atrocities, abuse, and modern-day slavery will plague America like an incurable cancer until we address this ugly past.

When Dr. Antoinette Harrell thought that she had heard the worst of the worst, there was even more to discover. Harrell heard four stories that were so evil that most people didn’t want to talk about what they experienced or repeat the painful experiences told to them by their family members. No one wants to visit things that hurt them. Having these hurtful injustices to resurface can take them back to that time, place, and period in their lives that they do not want to remember.

Many unfortunate events happened to children during Slavery, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow that continues to this very day. The story that Johnny Lee Gaddy shared with peonage researcher, Dr. Antoinette Harrell, will upset your stomach. Johnny witnessed a child’s hand in the hog pen at the infamous Arthur G. Dozier Reform School in the Florida Panhandle. Gaddy told Harrell during a radio interview that he saw the severed hand of a child in the fire pit while taking the trash to be burned. Gaddy knew it was the body part of one of the boys. After discussing what he saw with one of the boys, he was told never to tell anyone what he saw if he wanted to stay alive.

Gaddy alleges they were cooking the boys and feeding them to the hogs.

Gaddy told Harrell that he worked like a slave cutting lumber, raising livestock, and farming the land. He worked in the swamp with large alligators and snakes. Boys younger than Gaddy also had to work hard at Dozier. Gaddy said his life was a living hell at the state-operated school. The reform school was in operation from January 1, 1900 to June 30, 2011 by the state of Florida in the panhandle town of Marianna.

This was not a surprise to Harrell. She had previously met a family who was held in the system of peonage in Gillsburg, Mississippi in the 1960s. Cain Wall, Sr., who was 107 years old at the time, told Harrell his family’s story. He recalled a time when a man rode a horse throughout the area and picked up Black babies, cut them up and use them for fish bait. Wall said, “I saw the blood dripping from his sack on the side of his horse. Everybody would grab their children when they heard that he was coming. He was a mean and evil man,” said Walls.

Some people in the South claim white men used Black babies as alligator bait in the swamps of Louisiana and Florida. They used the babies to lure large alligators with human flesh and blood during the era of slavery. They kidnapped the babies, skin them alive, and drop them into the swamp waters. In 1923, a publication in Times Magazine reported from Chipley, Florida that Black babies were being used as alligator bait. On June 3, 1908, the Washington Times reported that a zookeeper at the New York Zoological Garden baited alligators with pickaninnies. Pictures, postcards, and other trinkets were sold to commemorate this evil, dark practice.

Deangelo and Kirk Manuel, intern researchers with Harrell, recently traveled to Shubuta, Mississippi to investigate six lynchings. The Manuels read how the four young black people were lynched at the Hanging Bridge in 1918. Those lynched were brothers, Major, 20, and Andrew Clark, 16, and sisters; Alma, 16 and Maggie Howze, 20. Maggie was six months pregnant and Alma was due in two weeks. Both young women were pregnant by the dentist who employed them. Major signed up for the draft in WWI on September 9, 1918 and was lynched in December of 1918. Ernest Greene and Charles Lang were lynched in 1942 in the same town in Mississippi. “There life was cut short, it’s no telling what the future held for those two young boys. We will never know the effects they could have had on this world,” said Deangelo.

It was alleged that Andrew and Major murdered Dr. Everette Lavega Johnston, a married white dentist where the four young people worked. Major and Andrew were working on the farm to pay a debt for their father, Eddie Clark, Sr. Major and Andrew were two of eight children born to Eddie and Charity Clarke. All four were brutally tortured. Maggie was smashed in the face with a wrench and they all were thrown from the bridge. When the victims were buried the next day, some people reported that the unborn baby could be seen moving in Alma’s womb.

Harrell and her interns are also investigating a case concerning missing boys in Smith and Simpson County in Mississippi in 1900. Near what was known at Sullivan’s Hollow, lived a man by the name of W.T. Ware, along with his sons and son-in-law, Turner. It was reported that the Wares had been stealing little Black boys and selling them to the Mississippi Delta. One of the Wares was a doctor and was responsible for disposing of the boys in the Delta. The Wares were arrested and tried for kidnapping and hiding a boy at the home of Turner in Simpson County until they could transport him to the Delta. A report was filed with the Attorney General in 1900.

Another report filed in Montgomery, Alabama, stated a young Black boy named Young Trammell was taken from the Alabama line and carried into Georgia where he was forced to work off a debt. The boy’s father informed the reporter that he could not get his son back until he paid the amount that Benford claimed was owed plus the alleged costs of the court proceedings.

Many have never heard these stories because they are not taught in schools. Monteral Harrell, educator and Grambling State University alumna, knows the reality of this truth. “A limited amount of information is presented to students in the public-school system about what actually happened during slavery and the Civil Rights Era. The same information on black history is given to the students year after year. Although the Historically Black Colleges and Universities excel in Black history education, there needs to be more courses offered that teach students how to properly research their history,” Harrell said.

Johnny Lee Gaddy is one of many stories that needs continued research. Johnny Lee Gaddy was taken from his mother in Clearwater, Florida in 1957 and driven to the Arthur G. Dozier Reform School in Marianna, Florida without due process from the courts or legal representation. He served his time and was eventually released to his mother. Harrell’s team consists of photographers, videographers, and screenwriters, who are dedicated in assisting Harrell with bringing these stories to the forefront.

Learn more about Dr. Antoinette Harrell at http://peonagedetective.com/ or follow her on Facebook at @harrellantoinette

This article originally appeared in The Westside Gazette.

Carma Henry

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IN MEMORIAM: Rest in Power — Minnesota Loses a True Warrior in Yusef Mgeni

MINNESOTA SPOKESMAN RECORDER — Yusef Mgeni, a brilliant historian, community organizer, former St. Paul educator and fierce advocate for Black people, died on April 7, 2026, leaving behind a legacy that will echo through generations of Black Minnesota history and community building.

Published

2 days ago

April 15, 2026

admin

By MSR News Online

Minnesota and the world lost a powerful voice and a true warrior on April 7, 2026. Yusef Mgeni is gone, but his legacy will echo for generations.

Yusef was a brilliant historian, a community organizer, a former St. Paul educator, and a fierce advocate for Black people. He carried with him an extraordinary archive of speeches, books, articles, and photographs documenting the work of countless Black scholars and leaders. His knowledge was not just deep. It was generational. Talk to him about any subject concerning Black history, and he would give you a dissertation.

His roots in this community ran deeper than most people knew. Yusef was the grandnephew of Fredrick McGhee, the pioneering 20th-century civil rights activist and attorney who made his mark in St. Paul at the turn of the century. That lineage was not lost on Yusef. He carried it forward with pride and purpose, spending decades making sure the stories of Black Minnesotans were told, preserved, and passed on.

As a journalist, Yusef called NAACP leaders and community figures to identify the issues that mattered most to Black people and wrote about them in local newspapers. He was a contributor to the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, a platform he understood and respected deeply. As a former St. Paul NAACP vice president, he remained active and engaged well into his retirement, answering emails and voicemails for residents who were at their wits’ end, helping them navigate evictions, legal challenges, and systemic barriers.

“Generally, they contact us when they are at their wits’ end,” he once said. “They are going to get evicted; their car is getting repossessed. We assist in navigating the system.”

His work was always about access. Under his leadership and alongside other NAACP leaders, the St. Paul chapter helped establish a landmark covenant between the police and the St. Paul community in 2001, a model that contributed to dramatically lower excessive-force costs than in Minneapolis in the decade that followed.

Yusef was also a passionate champion of ethnic studies in Minnesota’s schools, understanding that education rooted in Black and Brown history was not a supplement to American history but central to it.

“Ethnic studies is also American history,” he said. “The fact that the legislature and the MDE have both endorsed ethnic studies requirements in schools is a real plus for giving people the opportunity to explore and learn more about American history, and more importantly, to see themselves reflected in that learning.”

In the 1970s and ’80s, Yusef worked alongside Mrs. Clarissa Walker at the Sabathani Community Center, where they poured their energy into uplifting and empowering the community. Their work helped shape the cultural and political landscape of South Minneapolis during a critical era. They were part of a generation that built institutions, nurtured young people, and fought for justice with unwavering commitment.

Yusef also played a key role in the early development of KMOJ Radio, helping to establish a platform that amplified Black voices long before it was common or convenient. His activism extended through education, the St. Paul NAACP, the Million Man March, and the Urban Coalition, always rooted in a deep and abiding love for his people.

He was also an interviewee in the Rondo neighborhood oral history project preserved by the Minnesota Historical Society, ensuring that the voices and stories of that community would never be lost.

Not long ago, a colleague was blessed to sit with Yusef at his home, where he reflected on his life and his legacy. He talked about his work in education, his activism, and his years of service to the community. But what stood out just as much was how he spoke about his family and his people, with warmth, with pride, and with purpose.

Today, we honor him not only for what he accomplished but for the spirit with which he did it.

A scholar. A builder. A warrior. A keeper of our stories.

Thank you, Yusef, for everything you gave and everything you sacrificed on behalf of Black people. Your legacy stands tall, and our community is better because of you.

Rest in Power, Yusef Mgeni.

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Revolve Fund to Provide $20,000 to Support Food Access Efforts in Alabama Black Belt

THE AFRO — “Revolve Fund complements its core mission of improving capital access for entrepreneurs by partnering with leading organizations that are addressing critical community needs,” said James Wahls, founder and managing director of Revolve Fund. “Like BBCF, Revolve understands at the most fundamental level, everyone should have access to healthy food.”

Published

2 days ago

April 15, 2026

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By Revolve Fund | The AFRO

SELMA – As over 40 million Americans grappled with the reality of not being able to feed themselves or their families due to SNAP delays, Revolve Fund is seeking to help. Revolve Fund has announced a $20,000 community grant to the Black Belt Community Foundation as part of the duo’s continued partnership. The grant will increase the foundation’s capacity to execute programs and fundraise to support food access efforts in the Alabama Black Belt region.

“Revolve Fund complements its core mission of improving capital access for entrepreneurs by partnering with leading organizations that are addressing critical community needs,” said James Wahls, founder and managing director of Revolve Fund. “Like BBCF, Revolve understands at the most fundamental level, everyone should have access to healthy food.”

“BBCF is deeply grateful for the Revolve Fund’s grant to underwrite direct food support in the Black Belt during the current disruption of SNAP benefits, continuing high food costs and unprecedented strain on our local food banks,” said Christopher Spencer, president and CEO, Black Belt Community Foundation. “As BBCF mobilizes resources and community partners during this time, Revolve is one of the first philanthropic organizations to step forward to support our Food for Families in the Black Belt Campaign. We look ahead to our productive, continued partnership with them to positively impact and transform the Black Belt region of Alabama.”

“While our communities need and deserve so much more, we hope our contribution will support the foundation’s ability to work with other philanthropic partners, individual donors, charities, and public partners,” Wahls added.

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Mamdani Plans City Grocery Store in East Harlem

NEW YORK CARIB NEWS — The store will be located at La Marqueta, a historic marketplace beneath the elevated Park Avenue tracks. The project is expected to cost approximately $30 million and is slated to open next year, utilizing currently vacant space within the city-owned facility. Operating rent-free, officials say the model is intended to lower overhead and pass savings on to consumers.

Published

2 days ago

April 15, 2026

admin

New York Carib News

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has announced plans to establish the city’s first municipally owned grocery store in East Harlem, a flagship initiative aimed at addressing rising food costs and improving access to affordable essentials.

The store will be located at La Marqueta, a historic marketplace beneath the elevated Park Avenue tracks. The project is expected to cost approximately $30 million and is slated to open next year, utilizing currently vacant space within the city-owned facility. Operating rent-free, officials say the model is intended to lower overhead and pass savings on to consumers.

Mamdani unveiled the plan during an event marking his first 100 days in office, reaffirming a campaign pledge to build a network of five city-owned grocery stores, one in each borough, by the end of his first term in 2029.

“During our campaign, we promised New Yorkers that we would create a network of five city-owned grocery stores,” Mamdani said. “Today, we make good on that promise.”

The mayor positioned the initiative as a direct response to surging grocery prices, noting that food costs in New York City rose by nearly 66% between 2013 and 2023, significantly outpacing the national average. He argued that the city-run stores would provide fair pricing, improve worker conditions, and ease the financial burden on low-income households.

“We’re going to make it easier for New Yorkers to put food on the table,” Mamdani said, adding that staples such as eggs and bread would be more affordable.

However, the proposal is already drawing scrutiny. The estimated cost of the East Harlem store would consume nearly half of the $70 million budget initially outlined for the entire five-store program. Despite this, Mamdani remains confident that the initiative will deliver long-term benefits and help reshape access to affordable groceries across the city.

The announcement also drew political attention, with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders making a surprise appearance at the event in support of the mayor’s broader economic agenda.