Black women experience nearly three times the homicide rate of white women, according to a 2017 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study. That, according to another analysis, even as homicides among all persons in the U.S. rose 30 percent in 2020, the rate for Black females, exceeded that number, spiking 33 percent, despite accounting for roughly only 7.3 percent of the U.S. population.
Missing females and males of color in 2021, according to the National Crime Information Center, account for 38 percent of the total 521,000 missing persons cases. Of that figure, however, 34 percent were Black, despite Blacks comprising only 13.6 percent of the population. Of that 34 percent, 89,020 were Black females.
Located in Chicago, Mothers Opposed to Violence Everywhere, and Youth Opposed to Violence Everywhere—two grassroots community organizations on the city's West Side—held an event on Feb. 4, 2023, sounding the alarm on the crisis missing and murdered Black and brown women in America.
“Do you think if these were 51 white women this would’ve happened? This would’ve been all on CNN and everywhere,” asks Charles Green, whose sister Green was murdered in Chicago in 2003.
“No one told us anything. They never connected to say, ‘Ok, this is what’s happening in the city and that she is part of this,’” says Amanda Dudley, Green's sister. Eighteen years after Green's murder, it was revealed that she is among 51 women murdered in Chicago from 2001 to 2018, possibly by at least one serial killer, according to the Alexandria, Virginia-based Murder Accountability Project.
The Green family in 1978 during happier times. Green (middle ,in white collar shirt) smiles with her right arm around her little sister Amanda Dudley. (Photos Provided)
...Both skull and skeleton lie scattered, having been discarded upon the earth—the flesh and blood of the female corpse long since vanished. The remains, discovered on April 9, 2020, were identified as all that was left of Jessica Flores, 36.
Jessica Flores, 36, murdered, her remains discovered in a local forest in Gary, Indiana, on April 9, 2020 (Photo: Provided)
"Jessica lit up a room when she came in,” Genesis Flores recalls of her sister. “It’s a tragedy that they stole her from us because she was the light and heart of our family. She kept us all together and a piece of her left when she left.”
Ebony Peel, Flores' sister-in-law, recalls the summer day in 2018, when her two children and Flores’ son spent a day at a waterpark in Wisconsin, Dells. “She looked so cute and she was feeling herself. She put on her cute little one-piece, just walking around like she owned the place,” says Peel.
"Tell the stories of Black and brown girls who should have every opportunity to grow old, even if this world is so cold." —Samantha Latson
At an event to call attention to the cases of missing and murdered Black and brown women, tears and words flow at the Greater Rock Missionary Baptist Church on Chicago's West Side. (Photos: Samantha Latson, Feb. 4, 2023)
Greater Rock Baptist Church, a safe haven on the West Side of Chicago, advocates for missing and murdered women and their families
Rev. Dr. Floyd D. James prays for the missing and families of loved ones
Standing For Change
Daisy Hayes, 65, a mother who was loved
Protect Our Women and Girls
United We Stand
A Mother Remembers Her Slain Daughter
A Queen Gone Too soon, But Not Forgotten
Capturing The Moment
It's Gonna Take All of Us To Care
"We stand and fight for our girls"
Mothers Opposed to Violence Everywhere
Cameras, Action, and A Call For Change
I care
Marching for our girls
All Hands On Deck
"At the rally, between the prayers and songs, members of Congress gave speeches about the need for tougher gun legislation, and teens spoke about the impact of violence on their own lives. And although the issue disproportionately affects African Americans, it was clear to me by the presence of other marginalized groups, including members of the LGBTQ community and other ethnic minorities, that no one is exempt." —Samantha Latson, writing as an undergraduate student, covering "The March to End Gun Violence" in Washington, D.C. , in 2019.
Remembering Jessica Flores
Remembering Kentayvia Blackful
“Kentayvia lay in a white casket, wearing a silver tiara, appearing like a sleeping princess. A horse-drawn carriage carried her body to her final resting place. That was five months ago. And still, even as the seasons have passed, there is no rest for Kentayvia’s parents, who, like many survivors of murder victims, are left to cope with grief in the days after.” —Samantha Latson, Unforgotten 51 project, March 2020: "I promised her mother I would never forget Kentayvia"