Nearly 75,000 Black Girls & Women Are Missing Across the Country


Have you ever heard of Relisha Rudd?

Yesterday, through all of the noise about Donald Trump and his lies, I heard her name for the very first time. The sweet little eight-year-old girl, which is the same age of my precious daughter, Savannah, has been missing for three long years. She lived in a DC area homeless shelter with her mother before she was last seen on camera with a janitor at the facility. That janitor later killed himself and his wife. While many people presume Relisha is dead, every single clue of her whereabouts has gone cold. She has vanished.

I study and obsess over injustice and inequity for a living and yesterday was the first time I ever heard her name. It’s floating out there. I think I’ve seen her pictures, but it just never broke through to me.

This is not an accident. Thousands and thousands of young Black girls and women are missing all over the country, but I can’t name a single one of them. You probably can’t either. I asked a few people this morning, just as a test, if they could. They couldn’t. They didn’t even know that anybody was missing.

How would they? The stories of young Black girls and women who are missing don’t get the Elizabeth Smart or Natalie Holloway treatment. We don’t see primetime television specials on them. Their images don’t become permanent fixtures on Twitter. Their names don’t get hashtags or trending topics. Nationwide man hunts or search parties don’t ensue. Crying Black parents, pleading for their children to be found, don’t interrupt our sitcoms as breaking news.


Washington, D.C. appears to have a particular problem. Two young Black girls, Shaniah Boyd and Chareah Payne, have gone missing just this past week and many other open cases remain open from 2017 alone.

None of this is OK. It’s not OK that so many people go missing, but the fact that they are young and Black makes it so unlikely that we will ever hear the story or know the name or see the face is particularly disturbing.

Officials in D.C. are quick to say that 95% of the cases of disappearing girls and women have been resolved, but the fact remains that of the 5% that haven’t, all 37 of the girls and women are Black and Latina. This trend is not unique to DC. Black girls and women represent an outrageously disproportionate percentage of the number of people missing in this country. Black girls and women represent about 7% of Americans but over 35% of all missing person’s cases.

Have you heard of Phoenix Coldron? She’s been missing since 2011.

How about Makayla Randall? She’s been missing since 2012.

Here in New York, over a dozen Black and Latina girls in the Bronx went missing – prompting many to believe they were being abducted or forced into prostitution.

So, the crisis is two-fold. The sheer volume of missing people in this country, particularly young Black girls, must be addressed. The complex systems and structures and mechanisms needed to address this problem must be better. Of course that’s no easy feat. Each story behind each missing person is unique, but it’s often felt by families that their missing children just aren’t seen as the priority that they should be.

Secondarily, how the media covers these cases, and how we all become aware of them, must change. While we can cross our fingers that mainstream outlets will do better, history tells me that’s a bad bet. Those of us who care and are passionate about this crisis would be better off building and funding our own solutions or supporting those that have already started.


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19 thoughts on “Nearly 75,000 Black Girls & Women Are Missing Across the Country

  1. Bimbo slice on said:

    Why do I keep seeing this half breed Oreo, popping up in my news feed?
    Also, black people don’t care about black people. So stop trying to make it seem like it’s a white thing.

  2. Just A Thought on said:

    is it possible that the increased black female population is related to the surge of illegal immigration that is supported by the Democratic Party and therefore would never be advertised as this is a strong plat form they hold for voting purposes. Is it possible the majority of the world has some skin tone not whitey so therefore the black female would be more desired in sex trafficking and more easily to transport a sleeping brown girl to another country or what about the majority of the black population is O positive making their organs more compatible to transplant. This will not get any air time when then democratic vote depends on the black and immigrant vote. I am sure someone will blast my opinion and it is just an opinion to think about so please don’t get upset for trying to figure out why is this happening.

  3. David Guy on said:

    Ive seen several news reports when black girls and women go missing.if you havent its because you chose nit to pay attention.You can go to google and search black girl missing and see lots of news repirts of misiing black people.

    • Why must we go search for help and awareness and the white girls get national coverage. …wtf r u talking about. Do ur research. What u said makes no sense. We deserve the same treatment in any faction of this country. The same way yall keep shooting us down. Im shooting back. Im sick of this shit and we mean business. I will not hide how i feel. I will flood the world with all i kno and all i find. They are kidnapping our babies, doing all sorts of foul things to them. Its gonna be EXPOSED AND STOPPED. if u have nothing positive or helpful to contribute. Shut the FUCK up n stay in your place.

      • African American Woman on said:

        You sound like another ridiculous “poor victim me; the white man hates me” nut. People of all of all colors get new coverage everyday when they go missing…if you don’t think there’s enough coverage, start your own media channel and YOU bring awareness to this. Also, no one is shooting us down like we’re shooting us down…did you forget that or that’s conveniently left off your radar…you sound just like a talking head…you hear something and repeat it even if it isn’t true just to keep yourself victimised.

  4. John jay on said:

    Well to add to these Places where you don’t see and where you don’t hear about these missing black kids; you also don’t see posters with their photographs on telephone poles and Lamppost like you would when a person loses their pet. You don’t have to depend on the police to use a photograph of your own child to make a poster to put on a pole. How come these so-called parents don’t do that? You talking about 75,000 you should see posters everywhere and all the time that’s an awful lot of parents ignoring the opportunity to put their child’s picture on a post or Pole.

    • Because when my brother was missing and I personally posted signs in DC (on New York Ave) I was told by a young man that the city will have t he signs removed. It has to do with not having telephone poles cluttered and unsightly. So, many families may have tried this. In our case the SOB’s didn’t embrace it.

  5. Believe it or not, I’ve heard of the Relisha Rudd story, and then that was it. They never said what connected the janitor at the homeless shelter had to do with it,or why he killed himself and his wife

    • African American Woman on said:

      I hear you and agree, but that’s where we come in…I hate that we are the only people who depend on others to further our interests and then get mad when when they don’t represent us…all races and creeds have missing people in their ranks…they don’t depend on white people to feature them

  6. FallMornings on said:

    Wait a minute Shaun, you’re just hearing about Relisha Rudd?? It’s been over a year or more she was missing. It was big news in DC. Where were you?? Maybe if you got off of Trump’s d**k, you could write about news that is an interest to us.

  7. When a person goes missing, everything that can be done, should be done. Above and beyond that, however, we need to find a way to get back to how our neighborhoods used to be….a village. We knew each other; our neighbors watched out for and cared about our children as their own. We’ve lost so much of who we are and no one can give or bring that back to us, but us.

  8. African American Woman on said:

    Waaaaa….waaaaa….it’s sad that all these folks are missing, however, there are folks of all races and sexes missing that no one hears a peep about because they are just regular old people…you heard about the little girl in DC BECAUSE she was in the news, duh! Stop turning everything into a racial firestorm…I’m sure there’s a Hispanic mom praying that her daughter is found or a white Dad who hasn’t seen his kid since he left for school a year ago…everyone is not going to be reported on…not every missing person will be given priority, it’s just the way it is…now, the personal responsibility part…here’s a novel idea…we can make these cases priority by putting their names and faces out there….oh wait…that would make it impossible to complain about anything…oh well.

    • RENO2AC on said:

      You’re right, AAW. However, I believe that his point is that whites, particuarly white women deemed “attractive,” are all over the news when they are missing. Not always so with minorities.

    • James.brown on said:

      Where are the amber alerts? I heard them for Emily and Addison, but what about the many missing black girls. You are talking about a few missing random people. What about comming to the fact that it’s devestating how people are trying to wipe out a whole race. Don’t try to take away from this situation. Is there any action taking place? Who is doing this and why?

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