It’s a shocking statistic: For black 15-to-24 year-olds in America, homicide is the leading cause of death—accounting for 46 percent of all black teen deaths, according to the CDC. For the general population, that figure is 18.3 percent. And for black communities, most of those deaths are the result of black-on-black crime. And yet, we hear little about it in the news or from politicians offering solutions. But to families living in neighborhoods with high crime rates, it’s an unavoidable, tragic, topic.
Sylvia Bennett-Stone’s 19-year-old daughter and her best friend were killed in gang crossfire. Since then, Bennett-Stone has made it her mission to get black communities to talk about taboo topics: “Why black-on-black crime is so prevalent. Why are we killing each other?”
Bennett-Stone founded Voices of Black Mothers United under the Woodson Center, bringing together thousands of moms who’ve also lost children to street violence, and who also want to find real solutions.
