A Black and Missing Foundation poster of missing woman Keeshae Jacobs of Richmond, Virginia. PHOTO: COURTESY BLACK AND MISSING FOUNDATION
The disappearance of 24-year-old Tamika Huston opened the eyes of people across the nation when she first went missing in 2004 — particularly, the meager news coverage of the South Carolina native’s case compared to the full court press given to missing white women.
Most recently, Huston’s disappearance and death was used to highlight how little publicity is given to cases of missing Black women in an ABC 20/20 special, “The Girl Who Looked Like Me.” However in 2008, it served as the inspiration for the founding of the Black and Missing Foundation (BAMFI), a Maryland-based organization focused on bringing awareness to missing Black people nationwide.
BAMFI co-founder and CEO Natalie Wilson spoke with the AFRO about the organization’s origins, the epidemic of missing Black Americans, the importance of publicity and other means to combat this ongoing issue.
AFRO: How and when did the Black and Missing Foundation get started?
Natalie Wilson: The Black and Missing Foundation started in May of 2008 and the inspiration behind it is a young lady by the name of Tamika Huston who went missing from my sister-in-law’s hometown of Spartanburg, South Carolina. We read about how Tamika’s aunt, Rebkah Howard, really struggled to get national media coverage around her beautiful niece who was missing. And the striking part for us is that Rebkah was a publicist and she had access to the media, and they weren’t telling her niece’s story. Some weeks after Tamika went missing, Lori Hacking disappeared and she dominated the news cycle. A year later, Natalie Holloway dominated the news cycle, and we were disheartened to learn that Rebkah reached out to those same reporters, same networks, same programs and she was met with silence. Following this we decided to do some research and my sister-in-law and I found that at that time, 30 percent of all persons missing were of color — primarily Black males. And we said, let’s do something about it, let’s use our expertise — mine is in media relations, Dericca’s is in law enforcement, and those are the two critical professions needed to find and bring our missing home. And if you fast forward 16 years later, what keeps us going and what’s motivating us is that so many families are struggling and they’re desperately searching for their missing loved ones. They’re being turned away by the very institutions, media and law enforcement hat are sworn to help them. We want to even the playing field and we want our missing to be household names too, because it’s so critical to help find and bring them home.
What is the mission of the organization?
The mission of the organization is threefold. One is to bring awareness to missing people of color across the country. Two, is to educate our community on personal safety. And three, again, to bring awareness to this issue because it’s a human rights issue at this point.
Have any of the people that you have reported or posted on your website been found?
Absolutely. We have been instrumental in finding more than 500 people — whether they were found deceased or alive. Of course, we still have a lot more work to do because 40 percent of the missing population are people of color and we believe that the numbers are much higher. Because we know that there’s a sense of distrust between law enforcement and the minority community, a population could be not reporting these disappearances. Especially within the Hispanic community, they are not reporting for fear of deportation. In the FBI stats, they classify Hispanics as being white, however, at least 24 percent of Hispanics classify or associate themselves as Black.
You noted that 40 percent of missing people are Black. Do you know the numerical statistics for that?
The latest statistics show 40 percent of the population and that’s around 163,000 people of color under the age of 18. Let me break it down a bit. So in 2023, 224,706 persons of color were reported missing. Of that group, 162,755 or were under the age of 18.
What demographic is making up the majority of those numbers? So if 40 percent of the missing population is Black people — of those missing Black people is the majority women? Is it children? Is it men?
We’re seeing the numbers and it’s kind of neck and neck. It’s pretty even, but it’s still an issue because what we’re also finding is that our children tend to remain missing four times longer. They’re not getting the media coverage that’s need. And what we’re also finding is that law enforcement — at least for the cases that we see — nine out of the 10 cases they tend to classify these missing children as runaways. If you’re classified as a runaway, you do not receive the Amber Alert. You definitely do not get any type of media coverage at all.
What is being done to tackle this issue both within your organization and on a national and federal level?
Awareness is key. If our community isn’t aware that this issue is prevalent, then no one is really talking about it and that’s what we’re doing. We are out in the community. We have partnerships with local and national media platforms to sound the alarm that people of color are disappearing at an alarming rate and we need the community to be aware. And they’re disappearing for a number of reasons. Whether it’s sex trafficking or mental health. This is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Black women are disappearing at an alarming rate because of domestic violence. We need to look at the picture holistically and try to peel back the layers as to why this is happening and try to stem the issue. We recently issued a law enforcement guide to provide policies and procedures that law enforcement officials should follow when it comes to missing persons cases. As I explained, the classification runaway — we don’t use that term at all, and many law enforcement agencies don’t even have that in their policies and procedures. So then why are you classifying children as runaways when you issue the flier? We’re working with legislators to either implement or create laws to protect those that are most vulnerable. It’s the media, it’s law enforcement and the community that plays a great role in solving this issue. What we’re finding is that people tend to turn a blind eye to this issue because they’re not personally affected or they may not know the missing person. What we do is we vet every case and ensure that there’s a missing person report on file so that we won’t be liable for spreading false information. We have to do a better job of utilizing our faith based organizations and schools and medical facilities to really be on the lookout for cases of missing persons or abuse.
What is the biggest issue that is fueling Black people going missing?
Well, there are a whole host of issues. As I mentioned, sex trafficking. There was a study done by the Urban Institute where they interviewed pimps and pedophiles, and their response to trafficking young girls and young Black women is that one, they know that no one would look for them, and two, if someone did look for them and they were caught, the penalty will not be as harsh. How disheartening is that? Sex trafficking, mental health issues, we are seeing an aging population that now have dementia or Alzheimer’s, and they are wandering away. We need to be mindful of that too and domestic violence, but we also have to be mindful of our children that are being preyed upon in foster care. Those that are homeless are overlooked and no one is really keeping track of our children that are in foster care or that are homeless. They’re being preyed upon by these predators and these pimps.
The post AFRO Spotlight: The Black and Missing Foundation is shining a light on the alarming number of missing Black people appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers.
