Mass. aims to better track missing Black women, girls
BOSTON – Lawmakers proposing to address the issue of missing Black women and girls through the institution of an Ebony Alert system are hopeful that it will send the message: In Massachusetts, their lives matter.
The proposal, sponsored by state Rep. Bud Williams, D-Springfield, and Rep. Chyna Tyler, D-Boston, stems from the idea that collective action and preventive measures are needed to protect Black women and girls in Massachusetts from gender- and race-related violence.
When Black women and girls are kidnapped, murdered or trafficked for commercial sex exploitation, or even when Black girls leave adult supervision, Williams said, their circumstances and fates are largely ignored.
“When Black girls go missing, it falls on deaf ears, very little attention is paid,” Williams said as he addressed a legislative briefing last week where he urged colleagues to support the bill, still in committee.
Williams contrasted the attention they receive from law enforcement and the mainstream media against the attention paid to white women “with blond hair and blue eyes. Your background, where you come from, where you live, what you look like, shouldn’t matter.”
The measure would establish an executive office devoted to preventing and ending the targeting of Black women and girls.
The bill would also establish a databank to track and record reports of murdered and missing Black women and girls and follow their cases.
The bill would also establish an Ebony Alert system for missing and kidnapped Black children, similar to the nationwide Amber Alert that is activated when youngsters under 17 are reported kidnapped and details of their abductors are known.
The database would also track those missing children who are classified as “runaways” – children who are not under adult supervision and in danger.
In supporting the bill, state Sen. Liz Miranda, D-Boston, talked about two of her friends who were reported missing and ultimately found slain. Their attackers were arrested and charged in their deaths.
“They were my friends, members of my community,” Miranda said.
Jassy Correia, 22, of Boston, was kidnapped outside of a city nightclub in February 2019. She was found days later in the trunk of a car; her abductor had kidnapped, sexually assaulted and killed her.
Louis D. Coleman, 36, of Providence, Rhode Island, was arrested in Delaware and charged with the kidnapping and murder of Correia. Coleman was convicted June 1, 2022, by federal jury in Boston and sentenced by U.S. Chief District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV to life in prison without parole.
Sherell Pringle, 40, of Woburn, Massachusetts, was reported missing by her family after failing to return home from a date in December 2021. Her family found her remains in a Saugus swamp. The man she had been dating, Bruce Maiben, was arrested and charged with her death.
“Thousands of women are reported missing every year,” Miranda said. “It is the Legislature’s job to protect us.”