Black and Missing But Not Forgotten is the name of a remarkable blog, by a young woman named Deidra Robey. She’d seen a news report about 22 year old Stepha Henry going missing, and wondered what was happening with her case.
Stepha Henry went missing May of last year and by the time I heard of her, it had already been a month since her disappearance. So I went off to do a little research about her. I was surprised to only find a couple of articles on her and an outdated America’s Most Wanted profile. 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.”
I could not believe that Stepha’s story was being pushed to the side to cover an heiress’s trip to jail. I was furious but instead of complaining about it, I decided to take action and create my own media.
And so she did. It is sick that our valuelessness to this country extends to children in peril. But Deidra Robey, a college student (!!!), has really defined a need and the beginnings of a solution, with her Black and Missing blog. You can help her by donating to her cause and maybe even helping with her site. The navigation is a little wobbly, and I found after I’d run through, that Daily Kos had helped her set up her donations page, and made some suggestions about other needs she may have.
In a podcast on her site, Robey interviewed Agena Battle, the young mother of the three missing kids in Indianapolis, on March 8th. Battle’s boyfriend, Eddie Harrington, the father of the children, had kidnapped the children on the 5th of March. The children were found murdered yesterday, alongside Harrington, who had killed himself as well. The interview is heartbreaking. It’s a shame we need something like this, and it’s wonderful that this young woman is taking the time to do it. Show some love.
