In little Arcadia in southwest Florida in the 1980s, two tragedies became national news: the exoneration of a Black father wrongfully convicted in 1968 for the death of his seven children, and three little white boys being ostracized from the community after contracting the AIDS virus through blood transfusions. 

Jason Vuic grew up in nearby Ponta Gorda and remembers following these events closely as they unfolded. He dug back into the stories, and the story of Arcadia, in his newly released book for fall of 2025, "A Town Without Pity: AIDS, Race, and Resistance in Florida's Deep South."

If the James Richardson portion of this episode interests you, be sure to visit our Florida Black History YouTube channel with all of our previous shows about Black History in Florida.