‘An unspoken epidemic’: Homicide rate increase for Black women rivals that of Black men

Protesters at a memorial in New York City to honor Oluwatoyin ‘Toyin’ Salau, a Black Lives Matter activist that was found dead in Florida after she tweeted that she had been sexually assaulted and to protest for black women. Composite: Corbis/Getty Images

In 2020, a year of rising homicides amid a devastating pandemic in the US, the increase in the death rate for Black women rivaled that of Black men.

As homicides increased nearly 30% nationwide that year, the rate for Black women and girls rose 33%, a sharper increase than for every demographic except Black men, and more than double that of white women, according to a Guardian analysis of homicide data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.