In the United States, the second leading cause of death for black girls under the age of 20 is homicide. No other female group in this country has such a high risk of being killed. In 2020, when homicide rates exploded across the country, at least four black females on average were killed a day. In a just world, this would be considered a grave epidemic warranting a national reckoning. But in our culture, it has been ignored.Sylvia Bennett-Stone, the Director of the Voices of Black Mothers United initiative (VBMU), has been hard at work over the past year amplifying the voices of black mothers who have lost their children to gang violence. Sylvia lost her own 19-year-old daughter in 2004 when she was sitting in her car at a gas station in Fairfield, Ala., and caught in gang crossfire. One bullet shot through her car window and pierced her torso before entering her friend’s heart. Sylvia’s daughter was killed instantly, and her friend later died at the hospital.Her killer (who had two prior murder charges) was caught and admitted responsibility, but was bizarrely acquitted because the weapon could not be located.
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