After 72 people were shot within one weekend in Chicago, that city's mayor called for the city to work together.
The violent weekend is also shining a spotlight on another issue some don't talk about: Who is killing the black victims? It’s not always police or whites, but other blacks.
“You don't see these killings in mass numbers like this in other races,” Tanisha Taylor Bell told KARE TV from her Atlanta office. “How can we expect someone else to respect us if we don't respect ourselves? The black-on-black crime that is plaguing cities across the nation, you have to start at home. You have to make sure our young people respect our race.”
Chicago native Tanisha Taylor Bell owns a public relations firm, Perfect Pitch Media Group. But for nearly 13 years as an executive producer at CNN, Bell found herself writing stories about gun violence in Chicago. About two years ago, she felt compelled to do something in the city that gave and took from her.
“It is the city that raised me. A city that I love. A city that also took my father's life,” she said. “He was shot by teens (in Chicago) ages 15, 19 and 21, when I was just 5 years old."
Bell says teens like the ones who killed her father were the inspiration behind a scholarship foundation bearing her dad's name, the Ezekiel Taylor Scholarship Foundation. The foundation website says the nonprofit helps young black men lead better lives, make good life choices that impact their entire community, and have opportunities for higher education through mentoring and scholarships.
"I can't save every young person in the city," she said. "I wish I could. What I am offering is young people a chance to give back and get away. To get their education."
Bell said the teens who killed her dad didn't have a supportive community system that encouraged them to make good life decisions.
The violence that terrorized Chicago in the '80s continues. Minneapolis resident KG Wilson says Chicago’s present is a reflection of his past.
About 15 years ago, Wilson and his son, both now peace activists, escaped Chicago's violence by moving to Minneapolis. Since moving to Minneapolis, Wilson has been on a mission to end the violence in Minneapolis. He also hopes to change the stigma of snitching, which has created a code of silence in the black communities.
“Sometimes I feel alone. Sometimes I feel alone. The ones that don't get snitched on continue to hurt and terrify and destroy a community,” he said. “If I have to stand by myself in front of a fire squad. I am going to be that one who lets the youth and community know that this is right. Only right changed me and can change them. We can’t be quiet about it anymore.”
So far, there have been no arrests in any of the Chicago incidents from the weekend.