How the Black and Missing Foundation founders are changing the way missing persons cases are covered
TheGrio...
Natalie Wilson and her sister-in-law, Derrica Wilson, launched the Black and Missing Foundation in 2008 to raise awareness of missing Black people in the United States.
When a Black person goes missing in America, the odds are already against them. Not just of being found, but of anyone outside their family ever knowing they were gone. Tamika Houston, of Spartanburg, South Carolina, was one of them.
“A year after Tamika disappeared, Natalee Holloway vanished, and we all know her name, her story. And she dominated the news, and it was so disheartening to know that Tamika’s aunt Rebecca reached out to those same reporters, same networks, same programs to get coverage for her niece, and guess what happened? She was met with silence. No one wanted to cover her story,” Natalie Wilson, CEO and founder of the Black and Missing Foundation, told TheGrio.
Natalie and her sister-in-law, Derrica Wilson, a former law enforcement officer and the Chief Operating Officer of Black and Missing Foundation, started digging and discovered that the pattern stretched far beyond one family in South Carolina.
People of color make up 40% of reported missing persons in the United States, a figure that has grown since BAMF was founded in 2008, when it stood at 30% and primarily involved missing men. The founders believe the true number is even higher.
“I’m in media relations. Derrica’s in law enforcement, and those are the two critical professions needed to find and bring our missing home,” Natalie said.
Together, they combine media outreach with investigative knowledge to help find missing people. What keeps them motivated is the families still searching for answers about missing loved ones.
“When we first started, our men were seen as criminals, our girls were classified as runaways or being promiscuous. We’re shifting the narrative around them to show that these are our mothers, our fathers, our children, our neighbors that are disappearing at an alarming rate,” Natalie said.
Families told them the same thing over and over: BAMF was their last resort. Law enforcement wasn’t adding resources. The media wasn’t covering it. Without community engagement, cases went cold.
“Law enforcement, they are the gatekeepers … when these families are coming to us and then we’re following up with law enforcement, it actually helps get some fire under them because they know that someone else is looking, and of course, when we are posting these cases and bringing visibility to them, it applies pressure for them to dedicate more resources,” Derrica said.
Nearly 18 years later, the organization has forged partnerships that once seemed impossible, including NBC’s “Dateline,” the Washington, D.C., chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists and local and national newsrooms. It has also helped shape best-practice guides for both law enforcement and the media, as Derrica noted that there is still no consistent, holistic approach to missing persons cases nationwide.
“We can pick up the phone and call or send a message saying, ‘Hey, I need coverage,’ and they’re there,” Natalie said.
Their annual “Hope Without Boundaries 5K Run/Walk,” the largest BAMF event, will take place Saturday at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland. The fundraiser brings together community members, advocates and families to raise awareness and support the foundation’s mission of bringing home missing persons of color from around the nation, according to a news release.
“I remember when we had our first one, and we were so proud, just the people that came out. The attendees [were] pretty low, but we were very proud for it to be our first one, and fast forward when we think back, 10 years, we’ve been doing the 5K for 10 years, and it has really grown,” Derrica said.
She continued, “When I look at that day, it’s a day of hope. We have families that we are rallying around to help search for their loved ones. We have families there that we have actually brought answers or reunification to.”
The organization’s reach expanded into culture as well. Their individual work includes Natalie’s inspiration for NBC’s “Found” and the HBO docuseries “Black and Missing.” Derrica co-founded and leads BAMFI Enterprises, a production company that focuses on film, television and digital content about missing persons of color and issues affecting BIPOC communities, with projects featured on HBO, Lifetime and Apple TV. The pair also serves as executive producers of the podcast “Untold Stories: Black and Missing,” according to their bios.
“[When] these entertainment shows air … our caseload increases, we get more calls, more requests for assistance, Natalie said. “I’m glad that the world is, you know, seeing the issue and, and showing it in a way that people can see themselves in it.”
They say the caseload has continued to grow. Human trafficking, domestic violence, mental health crises and economic instability continue to drive disappearances, and the systems behind those problems have not changed enough.
In 2004, the late journalist and television anchor Gwen Ifill coined the term “missing white woman syndrome” during a panel at the UNITY: Journalists of Color convention in Washington, D.C. The term refers to disproportionate media coverage of missing white women compared with missing Black people and other races and genders, according to EBSCO and The New York Times.
For nearly 18 years, Natalie and Derrica Wilson have worked to fill the gaps left by law enforcement and media outlets that have historically underreported cases involving missing people of color.
“People, our community, turn a blind eye to this issue because they’re not personally affected. Well, any one of us can go missing, and the very institutions that are there, created to protect us, they’re not doing their part. We really need our community to get involved,” Natalie said.
They have an anonymous tip line at BAMFI.org, built specifically for the communities where the no-snitching code runs deep, where someone might know something but can’t be seen reporting it. On social media, they call their platform the “digital milk carton.” “Don’t just look at the flyer,” Derrica said. “Share it.”
“We know that someone out there knows something, and we just need that one person to come forward with information that can end the nightmare that these families are experiencing,” she added.
This summer, BAMF will launch street teams in cities where the need is greatest, including Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit and Baltimore, as well as across Florida. The teams will focus on community education and rapid response efforts when someone goes missing, before the window closes.
“We plan to be in places where we know we’re needed the most, and these are the hotspots for missing people of color,” Natalie said.
But the founders are clear about their ultimate goal: They do not want the work to last forever. They want to make the organization unnecessary.
The ultimate goal down the road is for the Black and Missing Foundation to die a natural death. And that will happen when all cases, regardless of race, gender, and zip code, are treated the same manner by law enforcement and the media,” Derrica said.