‘They’re taking it personal’: a hoax for Carlee Russell is bitter reality for 89,000 Black women and girls in US

Missing Black women receive less news coverage than white women, making it harder to gain resources to solve their cases

On 13 July, as the US fixated on the disappearance of Carlee Russell, a 25-year-old Black nursing student who went missing on an Alabama highway, Derrica Wilson saw hope for other families whose loved ones had also gone missing. She thought of of Casey Young, Alexis Ware, Relisha Rudd, Arianna Fitts and Keeshae Jacobs - all Black women and girls who were reported missing over the last decade.

Wilson, the co-founder of the Black and Missing Foundation, has worked with dozens of families to help raise awareness for missing people of color. Her organization focuses on Black women and girls specifically, whose disappearances receive significantly less news coverage than white women, making it harder to garner attention and investigative resources for solving their cases. Such attention is vital, Wilson told me, particularly in the first couple of days of a person's disappearance, because it amplifies public awareness and puts pressure on law enforcement to invest in these searches.