Domestic Violence Victims Need a Place to Heal
A transitional center is helping women of color reinvent their lives
When Brittany Smith, 23, was gunned down by her boyfriend in a Houston hotel last October, the case garnered local and national headlines. Her killer also took his own life, but one person survived: Smith’s son, then just four years old, who was reportedly the one who discovered his mother and alerted the front desk staff about the crime.
The tragedy is a potent reminder that in the era of #MeToo and Times Up, domestic violence is still happening across America. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, on average, an estimated 20 people experience intimate-partner physical violence every minute in the United States. This equates to more than 10 million abuse victims annually.
Moreover, African American women are being disproportionately affected. The CDC reports that nearly 45% of Black women have experienced intimate partner violence, sexual assault, or stalking at some point in their lives. A Violence Policy Center analysis of 2013 homicide data further revealed that Black women “were murdered at a rate two and a half times higher” than White women.
Tracy Arnold, a member of the Prince George’s County Human Trafficking Task Force in Maryland, has…
