Over the past 20 years, 51 Black women and girls have either gone missing or been found dead after disappearing in Chicago, according to WVON.
The radio station has produced a five-part series called “The Invisible Ones,” featuring the stories of these victims’ family members who are now looking at grassroots efforts to help find answers after cases have gone cold with the police.
The series, hosted and produced by morning news anchor at WVON Candace McCollum, also examines why – with so many women missing – coverage and attention on the cases has been minimal.
Families that McCollum spoke to said they don’t think the Chicago Police Department is doing enough and that the cases have not been addressed with urgency. She spoke to a mother of one victim who said police had not even spoken with the father of her daughter’s unborn child.
“These were sisters. These were mothers, cousins, grandmothers. They have stories as well,” McCollum said.
While some cases of missing white women get much national coverage, that’s not the reality for the cases of Black women, according to McCollum.
“They get their stories romanticized, they get humanized,” McCollum said. “But our girls don’t get humanized.”
U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush is trying to raise awareness around the missing women and has called for a special task force to find them. This past summer, Rush sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray to address the unsolved missing person and murder cases.
The series will air at 6:50 a.m., 10:50 a.m., 4:50 p.m. and 7:50 p.m. on WVON through Friday.