For all missing & murdered Black women & girls
Black women and girls are statistically overrepresented among the cases of missing women in Chicago and the United States. Of the 257,385 girls and women reported missing in 2021 in the National Crime Information Center database, 89,020 (36%) were Black, and 73,395 28.5% were Black women age 20 or younger.
Community organizations continually fight behind the scenes and in public for more recognition of this fact so lawmakers and law enforcement can do more. Unfortunately, something social scientists call “missing white woman syndrome” exists.
On June 14, 2022, our client the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO) kicked off its 5th Annual We Walk for Her march – with cosponsors GoodKidsMadCity-Englewood, Mothers Opposed to Violence Everywhere and the Lugenia Burns Hope Center.
Chanting “We walk for WHO? We walk for her!” and “We LOVE her!” demonstrators pressed city and state officials to do more to solve the cases of murdered and missing Black women and girls in Chicago and the U.S.
Thinkinc. supported KOCO’s galvanizing work on the ground with a media strategy and translated this Chicago march into national coverage by the Washington Post and its affiliates (such as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), along with extensive coverage by Windy City media before and after the march.
In the weeks before the march, Thinkinc. attended advance strategy sessions with KOCO, designed a comprehensive social media strategy to encourage turnout leveraging the partner organizations social media reach, assisted with the development of talking points, drafted a media advisory and news release, built comprehensive media list and pitched reporters across media platforms. Thinkinc. was able to make national as well as local news.
The Metro Monitor NewsTracker service reports that from June 14-15, 2022, TV and radio news reports on We Walk for Her reached more than 1 million viewers and listeners in Chicagoland.
Here is a list of much of the coverage:
TV and radio coverage
- ABC-7 News, June 14, 2022 | ‘We Walk for Her’ shines light on unsolved cases of missing women, girls of color
- CBS-2 News, June 14, 2022 | Teens marching in 5th annual ‘We Walk For Her’ Tuesday night
- CBS-2 News, June 14, 2022 | ‘We Walk for Her’ march will be tonight
- Fox-32 News, June 14, 2022 | It’s the fifth year for the We Walk for Her event
- NBC-5 News, June 14, 2022 | Protesters are taking to the streets
- WBBM Newsradio, June 15, 2022 | ‘We Walk for Her’: Activists march on South Side, calling for stronger effort in solving cases of missing Black women
- WBEZ-FM, June 14, 2022 | This hour, activists on Chicago’s south side are gathering for the 5th annual We Walk for Her march
- WBEZ-FM, June 14, 2022 | Activists on Chicago’s south side are gathering for the 5th annual We Walk for Her March at 5 tonight
- WGN-TV, June 14, 2022 | The 5th annual We Walk for Her march will start at 5 o’clock
- WVON-AM, June 14, 2022 | The We Walk for Her march is going to be at 5 o’clock today
- Fox-32 News, June 13, 2022 | Chicagoans to march to raise awareness for missing Black women, girls
- WTTW-TV, June 11, 2022 | Activists to Hold Walk for Missing and Murdered Chicago Women
Print and online coverage
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jun 18, 2022 | In Chicago, march highlights unsolved cases of missing Black women
- Washington Post, June 15, 2022 | In Chicago, march highlights unsolved cases of missing Black women
- Chicago Tribune, June 14, 2022 | Bronzeville march brings attention to slain and missing Black women in Chicago
- Hyde Park Herald, June 14, 2022 | We Walk for Her
- Yahoo News, June 14, 2022 | Teens marching in ‘We Walk For Her’ Tuesday night
Police took advantage of We Walk for Her coverage to promote their work on related cases
- Chicago Tribune and its many suburban newspapers, June 15, 2022 | Yorkville man charged with killing Aurora woman Tyesha Bell who went missing 19 years ago
- NBC-5 News, June 14, 2022 | Chicago police release security video of missing Black woman Kierra Coles withdrawing money before her disappearance in 2018 (no link available)
- ABC-7 News, June 14, 2022 | Chicago police release surveillance video of Kierra Coles, pregnant postal worker missing since 2018. The video includes a brief shot of KOCO members making signs for the We Walk for Her march and a sound bite from KOCO’s Tanisha Williams stating the goal of the We Walk for Her march: “What’s most important is that every case – Kierra Coles’ case and every cold case – gets the necessary attention that it deserves in Black and Brown communities.”
