Silent Witness National Initiative Inc

Promoting peace, healing, and responsibility to eliminate domestic violence.

Remember My Story.

Remember My Name. 

In 1990, the Silent Witness Initiative began to promote education and healing to end to domestic violence through community based exhibits. 

Thousands of men and women die each year in acts of domestic violence in the United States.  Each one has a story. 

Join our efforts to end this tragedy.

Because we need to remember their stories.

We need to remember their names. 

How It Began

In 1990, an ad hoc group of women artists and writers, upset about the growing number of women in Minnesota being murdered by their partners or acquaintances, felt an urgency to do something that would speak out against the escalating domestic violence in their state. They set out to create something that would commemorate the lives of the 26 women whose lives had been lost in 1990 as a result of domestic violence. The women designed 26 free-standing, life-sized red wooden figures, each one bearing the name of a woman who once lived, worked, had neighbors, friends, family, children--whose life ended violently at the hands of a husband, ex-husband, partner, or acquaintance. A twenty-seventh figure was added to represent those uncounted women whose murders went unsolved or were erroneously ruled accidental. The organizers called the figures the Silent Witnesses.

The Debut 

On February 18, 1991, more than 500 women met at a church across the street from the Minnesota State Capitol to showcase with the newly-constructed Witnesses lined up at the front of the sanctuary. The women formed a silent procession escorting the figures in single file across the street, up the steps, and into the State Capitol Rotunda for public viewing as statements about the tragedy of how their lives ended. The sheer volume of space the figures occupied spoke of their power... and the loss. The Silent Witness Exhibit was officially launched.

The National Initiative 

Inspired by the impact of what a few dedicated volunteers could do, the project creators were determination to create a larger goal, namely the formation of a national initiative dedicated to the elimination of domestic murders, with witness events in all 50 states. Over the next 6 years, witness projects began in all fifty states.  In March 1997, all 50 states were represented in the March in Washington, D.C. In 2003, it was repeated in Rhode island.  Today witness events take place in all 50 states and 35 countries world-wide.

Silent Witness Today

The goal of the Silent Witness National Initiative has  become 0 by 2020, specifically zero domestic murders by the year 2020.  Since its inception, Silent Witness has been instrumental in the discovery and promotion of successful domestic violence reduction projects.

The original twenty-seven women (witnesses) whose murders prompted the passion to create the Silent Witness Initiative have prevailed. Their stories have been heard across the country calling for the healing to continue until there are no more domestic murders and domestic violence is eliminated in our homes and communities world-wide. 

So please remember their stories. 

Because we need to remember their names.