Nailah Franklin's Death Continues to Resonate

By Margaret Lyons in News on Oct 2, 2007 10:50PM

"I saw the face of Nailah Franklin so often, I began to feel as if I knew her," writes Mary Mitchell in a thoughtful column that contextualizes Franklin's disappearance and the media attention it garnered (1, 2, 3) as part of a broader narrative of how the media responds — and how families approach the media — when black women vanish. "Franklin has been humanized in a way that so many missing black women have not been," she says, citing Nancie Walker's 2003 disappearance (a case Mitchell wrote about back then, too).

Franklin's funeral is tomorrow at the Trinity United Church of Christ, 400 W. 95th St., with a public visitation from 4–7 p.m. Her family has set up a fund in her name through the Chicago Community Trust.