In April alone, at least half a dozen Black women were allegedly killed by their partners, including the high-profile cases of Cerina Fairfax, estranged wife of the former Virginia lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax, and Nancy Metayer Bowen, vice-mayor of Coral Springs, Florida. Shaneiqua Elkins survived a shooting by her husband, Shamar Elkins, that wounded her and killed seven of her children and one of their cousins in Shreveport, Louisiana.

These tragedies are shining a light on the killings of Black women and the systems that allow that violence to continue.

The numbers are startling. Black women are two and a half times more likely to be murdered by men than white women are, according to a 2025 study. Most of them are killed by men they knew. A 2024 CDC report also found that Black women made up approximately 13% of the population, but accounted for nearly 30% of intimate partner homicide victims. Firearms, mostly handguns, were the most common weapons used by men to murder Black females.

So why these appalling racial disparities? Often, Black women’s deaths at the hands of their partners are a culmination of months and years of intimate........

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