The concerning numbers of missing Black women and girls, some of whom are feared to be murdered is a disturbing plight that is a national emergency in the U.S.
New legislation in Missouri aims to lower disproportionate rates of Black women and girls who are missing and murdered compared to White women and girls.
Democratic State Senator Angela Mosley of the 13th District (which includes Bellefontaine Neighbors, Black Jack, Castle Point, Country Club Hills, Flordell Hills, Florissant, Glasgow Village, Hathaway, Jennings, Moline Acres, Old Jamestown and Riverview) filed The Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls Task Force, which passed on March 26, 2025, which became effective in August.
The Task Force’s role is to, among other things, examine and report on:
• The systemic causes behind violence that Black women and girls experience, including underlying factors that explain why disproportionately high levels of violence occur against them, including underlying historical, social, economic, institutional, and cultural factors that contribute to the violence;
• Appropriate methods for tracking and collecting data on violence against Black women and girls; and,
• Develop policies and institutions such as policing, child welfare, coroner practices, and other governmental practices that impact violence against Black women and girls and the investigation and prosecution of crimes of gender violence against them; and
• Enact measures necessary to address and reduce violence against Black women and girls.
Once the task force submits a report regarding policies and measures to address violence against Black women and girls, on or before December 31 of each year, the real work begins, Sen. Mosley told The Final Call in an email.
“The recommendations from the task force will guide us in crafting new laws, funding programs, and reforming systems that have failed our communities. That could include improving data collection, increasing resources for law enforcement and victim services, and creating public awareness campaigns,” she said.
“My goal is to ensure the report doesn’t just sit on a shelf—it becomes a roadmap for lasting change and accountability,” added Sen. Mosley.
The task force is set to expire on December 31, 2027, unless the Department of Public Safety determines that it should be extended until December 31, 2029.
“I also hope we will create a permanent Office for Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls to continue this work, provide ongoing oversight, and ensure families have a place to turn for support and justice,” stated Sen. Mosley.
The legislation was inspired by a similar bill that passed in Minnesota, she shared.
“I knew that too many families in our community have been left without answers or justice when their loved ones go missing. So, I filed the legislation, and I’m proud to say we got it passed this year,” she said.
Unfortunately, Minnesota’s bipartisan bill passed the state assembly in February 2024, but has not yet gone to the State Senate, according to the Wisconsin Examiner.
Democratic State Rep. Shelia Stubbs of the 78th District (which includes parts of South and East Madison, the City of Monona, a portion of the Village of McFarland, and the Town of Blooming Grove) is the bill’s author. She said the task force is necessary “to protect our communities and to reduce and heal gender-based violence in our state,” reported the Wisconsin Watch.
“Violence is an issue that impacts every woman and girl of all racial backgrounds,” she said on the Assembly floor before the bill passed by a voice vote last month. “But it’s harming and it’s killing our Black women and girls at the highest rate.”
The Wisconsin Watch reported that Republican Sen. Duey Stroebel of Saukville has said he would not schedule a hearing on the proposal, saying the majority of the 204 missing persons on the National Missing and Identified Persons System are men and that he believes that every person who is missing or murdered deserves equal justice under the law.
Calls for the task force in Minnesota renewed in 2024 but there has been no Senate date scheduled yet.
But Black women and girls are disproportionately affected by violence, trafficking, and systemic neglect, leading to higher rates of their disappearance, and placing them at greater risk for homicide, according to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs.
According to the National Crime Information Center, in 2022, of the 271,493 girls and women reported missing, 97,924, or more than 36%, were Black, even though Black women and girls comprised only 14% of the U.S. female population at the time.
Sen. Mosley thinks it will take awareness, collaboration, and urgency from lawmakers in every state, for efforts like The Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls Task Force to be used across all 50 states or issued across state lines, such as the National Amber Alert.
The Amber Alert System began in 1996 when Dallas-Fort Worth broadcasters teamed with local police to develop an early warning system to help find abducted children.
AMBER stands for America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response and was created as a legacy to nine-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas, and then brutally murdered.
Other states and communities soon set up their own AMBER plans as the idea was adopted across the nation, according to the Office of Justice Programs.
In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the Ebony Alert in October 2023, to address the crisis of Black children and women between the ages of 12 and 25 who are reported missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances.
It was introduced last October by Democratic Sen. Steven Bradford (35th District which covers the Los Angeles County communities of Carson, San Pedro, Compton, West Compton, Gardena, Harbor City, Hawthorne, Inglewood, Lawndale, Lennox, West Carson, Watts, Willowbrook, and Wilmington) and sponsored by the NAACP California Hawaii State Conference.
It took effect on Jan. 1, 2024. California became the first state to create an alert notification system to address such crises, noted Sen. Bradford in a recent press statement.
According to an NBC News report, one year after its launch, the Ebony Alert had “been deployed 31 times, recovering 27 people, according to the California Highway Patrol, which ultimately issues the alerts.”
In California, there are still concerns that the alerts are not issued as often as it could be and that law enforcement is not properly trained enough to use it. Still, proponents of such systems argue something must be done.
“We need to treat this issue as a national crisis—not just a local one,” said Sen. Mosely. “That means sharing data across state lines, creating consistent protocols, and dedicating real resources to prevention and response.
If we can establish federal support or model legislation that other states can adopt, we could build a coordinated system, much like the Amber Alert, to ensure that missing Black women and girls don’t fall through the cracks.”
Black women and girls are sometimes listed as “runaways” rather than missing persons.
According to “Shining a light on the crisis of missing or murdered Black women and girls in the United States,” (a November 22, 2024, perspective written by Linda A. Seabrook and posted on the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs’ web page).
“Black women and girls are disproportionately affected by violence, trafficking, and systemic neglect, leading to high rates of their disappearance, and placing them at greater risk for homicide.”
Early last year, The Lancet, a weekly medical journal, reviewed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC)research on Black women aged 25-44 years between 1999 and 2020 among 30 states in the USA.
It found that in 2020, the homicide rate among Black women was 11.6 per 100,000, compared with three per 100,000 among White women.
“This inequity has persisted over time and is virtually unchanged since 1999. Homicide inequities vary across U.S. states; in 11 states, racial inequities have increased since 1999. The racial inequity was greatest in Wisconsin, where in 2019–20, Black women aged 25–44 years were 20 times more likely to die by homicide than White women,” continued The Lancet.
Natalie Wilson, co-founder of the Black and Missing Foundation, discussed with The Final Call, the organization’s mission to address the disproportionate media coverage and resources for Black, Latino and Indigenous missing persons.
Tamika Huston was the catalyst. When the 24-year-old vanished from her home in Spartanburg, South Carolina, around the same time as Jennifer Wilbanks, Laci Peterson, and Natalee Holloway.
White women who all went missing around the same time and whose names dominated the mainstream media, there was “radio silence,” a struggle to get national media coverage for Tamika, said Ms. Wilson. According to Ms. Wilson, even Tamika’s aunt, who is in media relations, faced difficulty, according to Ms. Wilson.
“Natalie Holloway disappeared a year later, after Tamika, and news coverage, every single reporter, program, network, covered Natalie Holloway’s story. And when Tamika’s aunt Rebecca reached out to those same reporters, same network, same program, she was met with silence,” she said.
Meanwhile, Greg Parr, of Kansas City, Missouri, whose daughter Serene, 27, went missing on May 16, 2025, continues to advocate for missing and murdered Black women and girls.
Thankfully, the father and daughter were reunited on October 13.She had not been harmed, said Mr. Parr. He said that he faced challenges in filing a missing person report, emphasizing the need for better community engagement and support for missing persons units.
“We were trying to get it to go national, because her last statement was she was going to Las Vegas,” he said. “One officer was telling me they don’t file missing persons on adults.
And I said, I’ve seen those missing persons for adults on TV, on the news! A 33-year-old man was missing one day. Why is he there, and you can’t put my daughter on there,” he told The Final Call.
“It’s confusing and frustrating. … Sometimes you don’t notice things until it happens to you,” he said. Mr. Parr appreciates the task force initiated by Sen. Mosley, saying it is needed across the country.
“Actions speak louder than words. What you do with the information is the most important thing when you do next steps. Go to a community engagement officer or team of community engagement officers from state to state. It’s their job to look for missing Black children or adults,” said Mr. Parr.