California governor Gavin Newsom signed a new bill, Senate Bill 673, to create a new statewide alert system for missing Black children and women. This new initiative, the Ebony Alert, is said to be the first of its kind in the nation.
Ebony Alert Law
The new Ebony Alert works similarly to the Amber Alert system. The already-in-place Amber Alert activates highway signs and local phone alerts to post information about a missing person and, if kidnapped, the type of car they were last seen in. The Ebony Alert will be used for missing Black youth ages 12-25.
“California is taking bold and needed action to locate missing Black children and Black women in California,” the bill’s author, state Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, said in a statement announcing the bill signing.” Our Black children and young women are disproportionately represented on the missing persons lists,” Bradford called the disparity “heartbreaking and painful.”
His thoughts are justified as the number has proven such true. The Black and Missing Foundation, a nonprofit organization for missing persons of color, says nearly four in 10 missing children in the country are Black. Additionally, about the same percentage of sex trafficking victims are Black women.
The foundation also states that missing Black youth are misclassified as “runaways.” Because of the false labeling of Black youth compared to white youth deemed “missing,” the media attention that should be going towards these cases is overlooked.
“The Ebony Alert can change this,” Bradford said in the statement. He added. “vital resources and information are given so we can bring home missing Black children and women in the same way we search for any missing child and missing person.”
The new Ebony Alert law takes effect in the state of California on January 1st, 2024.