Deidra: Black and Missing but not Forgotten

Deidra has been running her blog, Black and Missing but Not Forgotten since July 2007. She states:
“This blog is dedicated to all the missing black women in America. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr once said “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” If the media doesn’t step up—who will? Let these ladies know that we did not forget about them.”
Deidra made time between her two jobs and blog to answer my questions. Here’s Deidra…

Do you remember the moment you decided that enough was enough, and that you were going to start “Black and Missing but not Forgotten�?
Yes I do. I was reading on a blog about a missing woman—Stepha Henry. After realizing that she had been missing for a whole month, I decided to do my own research on her. To my surprise, I did not find much about her except a couple of blog articles and an “America’s Most Wanted� profile that wasn’t as up-to-date as it should have been. This was upsetting, but what really set me off was this quote from Miami Herald’s Crime Scene blog:
“I’m livid. I agreed to conduct a last-minute interview with MSNBC about the case of missing Stepha Henry, the 22-year-old college grad who went missing May 29 from Miami-Dade. I rushed to MSNBC’s studio but a few minutes before the interview, I was told that it was off—Paris Hilton coverage was more important.�
Now I have nothing against Paris Hilton, but getting news coverage out to help find a woman who is missing and is in danger of losing her life should be a far higher priority than watching a heiress go to jail for a D.U.I. Right then and there, I knew I had to do something about this. A couple of weeks later, I was spending hours organizing and posting up slide shows and links to missing females on my blog.
How many missing black women have you brought to the public’s attention so far?
To date, I have featured over 150 missing females on my blog.
Why do you think the media “doesn’t step up� to expose missing black women? And what do you see as the bigger picture—if any at all—that is behind missing women in the U.S.?
I think this is a question we need to ask the media. The way the media is going right now, it seems like they think that Paris Hilton, Michael Vick, and Ving Rhymes’s dog is more important than Stepha Henry and other missing black females. It is as if they are saying that if you don’t fit into the right demographic then your life does not matter.
For example, look at the missing pregnant Ohio woman, Jessie Davis [now deceased, white]. She got much more coverage than Latoyia Figueroa [now deceased] who was black. Stepha Henry, who went missing before Jessie Davis, is still missing. Yet Natalee Holloway, a young white female, got more exposure than her, and the media continues to cover Natalee’s case from time to time—more than two years after her disappearance.
Frustrating isn’t it? I think the media has some serious questions to answer.
I believe that a lot of missing women go missing because they were either in the wrong place at the wrong time or were dealing with the wrong people. More needs to be done about educating women about their safety.
Can you talk about the latest missing black women you posted on your site?
These are two of the latest black women posted to the site:
Zetra Bohannon
DOB: Nov 2, 1989
Missing: Aug 2, 2007
Height: 5’8″ (173 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Age Now: 17
Sex: Female
Weight: 180 lbs (82 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Bartlett, IL United States
Zetra may be with a male companion. They may have traveled to Chicago, Illinois. Zetra’s ears are pierced.
Delores Heath
DOB: Oct 12, 1992
Missing: Aug 4, 2007
Height: 5’3″ (160 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Age Now: 14
Sex: Female
Weight: 120 lbs (54 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Hampton, VA United States
Delores was last seen on August 4, 2007 around 1300 hours. She was wearing a green and grey shirt, blue jeans, blue knitted shoes and green flowered earrings. She may still be in the local area.
Because of the obvious lack of media attention, this was all I could find on both of these girls. These profiles were taken from the National Center of Missing and Exploited’s website.
Has your blog helped to find any of the missing black women you posted on your site? What can visitors of your site do to help, or if they know any information that can help with a case?
The last time I checked, about 20 missing females were recovered. At the moment, I have no way of knowing whether these females were recovered dead or alive. This might either be due to the lack of media coverage or to privacy issues.
I am currently trying to add RSS feeds from local newspapers in each state from Yahoo! News into my blog. It’s a long process to save them all to my computer but once I am finished with it I will be able to keep it updated with the latest news whether I’m online or offline. I am also trying to post the links to each state’s main police department or missing person’s website.
If any visitors want to help, I definitely need help in the research process. Currently, I am the only one looking for news on these women. I just need a few people to do something as simple as reading their local paper every day and looking for missing black women. If I can get a couple people from each state, that would be great. My email is mzdeidra@hotmail.com for anyone who is interested in helping.
If anyone knows any information about the women on my blog, I urge them to contact the authorities ASAP. For every missing person on my site there is a link and/or phone number which you can call if you know anything about their case. It is very important that you speak up in times like these. The first few days a person goes missing are critical, so it is vital that the authorities get whatever information they can to help find them.
How has running “Black and Missing and not Forgotten� affected you personally?
It has affected me a great deal—almost to the point where it is all I do in my free time. I had no idea that it was going to be so time-consuming to find news on missing black females. For every 10 profiles on missing white people I find, there is probably one black person—if any. It is so frustrating seeing the same results over and over again. But I am the type of person that never gives up. Instead of complaining about the lack of information, I am trying to figure out how to get it. Sometimes I will be on the computer for eight hours at a time but in the end the results that I get from staying determined is rewarding.
What kind of feedback have you received from your blog?
There were a couple of people that thought I was crazy for doing it because they knew that it was a lot of work for one person, but most thought that what I was doing was needed. To my knowledge, there is not a website devoted entirely to missing black females and several people told me that it is a great idea to just focus on them so that they get the exposure they need.
A couple of people told me that I should go to radio stations or magazines about it to get the word out. That one is definitely high up on my to-do list. Another person said that I will be on Oprah one day about this and I just laughed and said, “That would be great if I can get that type of exposure for these ladies!� I thought they were exaggerating at first but you never know what will happen. It would truly be a blessing if my blog can get that type of recognition! Overall though, the feedback has been positive.
Is there anything you would like to add?
I just want people to know that it only takes one person with a lot of determination to make something happen. I’ve heard this over and over again in my life and I truly believe it. Pretty soon, that one person you helped will turn into several people that you helped and maybe hundreds and thousands.