What happened to Brittany Clardy a dozen years ago is not only painful to her family and her St. Paul community, it’s “reflective of a much larger crisis” in Minnesota and across the nation, her sister said Wednesday.

Clardy was 18 when she was murdered in 2013. Her sister, Lakeisha Lee, was co-chair of Minnesota’s Missing and Murdered African American Women Task Force.

The taskforce’s recommendations and legislation led to the creation of the Minnesota Office for Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls in 2023. Kaleena Burkes, the office’s first director, was appointed a year ago.

“Many Black women in the U.S. have the same story as Brittany,” Lee said Wednesday at the first Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls Day on the Hill. “… I, as Brittany’s keeper, want to bring awareness to those voices. … When Black women and girls are safe, all of our communities are safe.”

At Wednesday’s gathering in the Minnesota Capitol’s Rotunda, the aim was to bring awareness to the new office — so families know they can contact them for help — and to the disproportionate number of Black women and girls who are missing and murdered.

“We must first acknowledge the women and girls who are not here … lost to this epidemic of violence,” Burkes said. “Women and girls who deserve to be protected, women and girls whose names should have never become headlines or cold cases.”

“But let us also acknowledge a deeper truth: Too often, when Black women and girls go missing, they are not met with urgency,” Burkes continued. “Their disappearances are not met with national outcry, their lives are not deemed worthy of the same media coverage, the same law enforcement response and the same public sympathy.”

Minnesota became the first state in the U.S. to create an office dedicated to the problem, Burkes said. It’s part of the state’s Department of Public Safety’s Office of Justice Programs.

‘Heartbreaking’ statistics

Although Black women comprise 7 percent of the population in Minnesota, 40% of domestic violence victims are Black women. Black women are nearly three times more likely to be murdered than white women in Minnesota, according to the Office of Justice Programs.

“The statistics are heartbreaking and sobering,” said Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.

Former Minnesota Rep. Ruth Richardson was a chief author of the legislation that created the office. She said she will never forget Clardy’s mother, testifying at the legislature about the loss of her daughter, saying: “I wake up every morning asking myself, ‘If there had been an immediate response to my daughter being missing, would she be here today?'”

“No one should ever have to ask themselves that question every single morning,” Richardson said Wednesday. Clardy was missing for 10 days before her body was found in a vehicle at a Columbia Heights impound lot, after the car had been towed from a Brooklyn Park apartment complex.

The family of Taylor Hayden, previously from Medina and the sister of former Minnesota Sen. Jeff Hayden, also advocated for change.

The 25-year-old woman was fatally shot in 2016 in Atlanta. “She was simply walking to meet her Uber when someone ran up, grabbed her and used her as a human shield,” said Joyce Hayden. “… As a mother, my heart shattered into a million pieces.”

The creation of the state office recognizes the need to address disproportionate violence that Black women face, but Joyce Hayden said it shouldn’t be regarded as a solution.

“It’s the foundation of our work,” which must be built upon, she said.

The office’s budget is $2.5 million for the biennium, which is $1.25 million per year.

Artika Roller, executive director of Cornerstone — which connects victims of domestic violence, sexual violence and other crimes to services — asked people to raise awareness by sharing information on social media and by talking to people they know.

“Bring this issue to light and let them know that we’re doing this work and we’re committed to bringing our family members back home,” she said.

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