The measure would establish an executive office devoted to preventing and ending the targeting of Black women and girls and create an Ebony Alert.

State Representative Bud Williams of Springfield has filed and sponsored a House bill that is aimed at establishing proper protocols when Black women and girls go missing in the state.

Though Black women and girls are more likely to be impacted by violence or disappearance, they receive far less media attention and follow-up from law enforcement, advocates told Massachusetts lawmakers Tuesday morning.

If a white woman is missing and she’s got the blonde hair, blue eyes kind of thing the media attention is out of this world. It’s all over social media, TV, radio, Internet. But if a Black woman goes missing it’s deaf ears.