Tens of thousands of Black youth and women go missing across the U.S. each year. But their cases hardly ever grab national headlines, let alone receive the attention and resources dedicated to finding them.

California has a new emergency alert, the "Ebony alert", created to help locate missing Black people.

California ranks in the top states where people of color are disappearing at an alarming rate. Sadly, many of our cases are under the radar, like Arianna Fitts of San Francisco, who has been missing for seven years after her mom was found murdered.

Of those reported missing under 18, nearly 40 percent were Black or African American.

In a new initiative designed to address the distressing disparity in missing persons cases, California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed Senate Bill 673 into law, introducing the nation’s first statewide alert system designed specifically to aid in locating missing Black children and young Black women.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) signed legislation making California the first state in the country to create a separate alert system for missing women and children based on race.

Bill author Steven Bradford announced, "California is taking bold and needed action to locate missing Black children and Black women."

'Black children are disproportionately classified as "runaways" in comparison to white children who are classified as "missing,"' a news release from Sen. Steven Bradford's office stated.

Gov. Newsom signed the statewide alert system into law on October 9 which will aid in locating black missing children and young women.

Advocates say the alert system is the first step in addressing the crisis of missing Black children.