From Ignored to Investigated: Missouri’s Plan to Protect Black Women
Across the U.S., Black women and girls are either murdered or go missing at an alarming rate. And often the victims are either ignored or overlooked. Now, Missouri plans to do something about it.
Starting October 1, the Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls Task Force will begin meeting monthly. The brainchild of Senator Angela Mosley (D-Florissant) — its members include state legislators, law enforcement officials, representatives from domestic violence and missing-person organizations, survivors, and family members.
The group will review data, collect stories from survivors and impacted families, and work to reopen neglected and long-forgotten cases.
"Hopefully, we'll bring some resolve for those families who have been waiting for years for law enforcement to take their cases seriously," Mosley said in a recent interview with KCUR. Mosley first got the idea for the bill after it was passed in 2022 in Minnesota, according to KOMU.
On August 28, Missouri lawmakers approved the new law creating the task force. Mosley, the law’s key sponsor, pointed to research and firsthand accounts showing that Black women and girls in Missouri are more likely than their white peers to go missing or be murdered — and that their cases often receive less attention from law enforcement.
Theda Wilson, whose 9-year-old son went missing in St. Louis back in 2003, created "Looking for an Angel" in his honor.
"I personally have had to force the hand of law enforcement and assist families with getting their child recognized as missing or filing a missing person report, because sometimes they may not have said the right things to let people know that this is a missing person case, and there is no waiting period," she said.
She also notes that often Black women and teens are often initially seen as runaways, meaning their cases get pushed aside. This is despite the pleas from families saying otherwise. "I just want people to remember the numbers, remember the names, and remember that African Americans are people too," Wilson said.
