‘Find Our Missing’ Highlights Missing Persons Cases Involving African Americans

In mainstream media, coverage of African-Americans has been lacking. The families are burdened with confusion and anger because the reports of missing family members are rarely highlighted in the news.

TV One's new show, "Find Our Missing," an hour-long series, dedicated to bringing more attention to the disappearances of African-Americans.

The show attempts to display the humanity of those gone missing and how it has affected their loved ones and their community. The show airs every Wednesday at 10 p.m. and is narrated by S. Epatha Merkerson, who starred in NBC's Law & Order.

"This issue is nothing new. I feel like people think missing black people are not important enough to be on the news," said junior, television production major Lamar Smith.

Co-executive of production at TV One, Craig Henry, told The RootDC their reasoning behind "Find Our Missing."

"Though blacks comprise only 14 percent of the total U.S. populations, they account for nearly 40 percent of all reported missing persons cases," Henry said.

"At TV One, we believe with the resources at our disposal, we are ideally suited to highlight this seemingly cultural epidemic," he said. "While providing a mechanism for people to seek help, or share information that might help bring someone home or even closure to a suffering family."

Hopefully, TV One's efforts won't go unnoticed and will somehow inspire mainstream media to cover disappearances in the black community.

"I think it's a great attempt, but it takes black people to actually care about one another, watch it and then do something about it. It's a great start," said Smith.