Event
Defective Delinquency: A Local High School’s Journey to Tell the Story of a Notorious 20th Century Law
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Free.Dates & Times
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Description
Between 1911 and 1971 the Commonwealth of Massachusetts – and dozens of states like it – passed a series of laws that empowered officials to indefinitely imprison people with intellectual disabilities who the state believed were “likely to commit crimes.” These people were designated as “defective delinquents,” and, in Massachusetts, most were sent to the Bridgewater State Prison. This school year, students from the Gann Academy in Waltham spent a semester learning about the law and immersed themselves in before-unseen archives that contained the personal stories of many of those imprisoned under this law. They then designed a museum exhibit and website to teach the public about this little-known but vitally important chapter of American History. Join them live on Zoom to preview the exhibit, go behind the scenes of their research process, and learn about the connections between this history and the Longfellow social circle.
Reservation or Registration: Yes
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Gann Academy