October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Read below to find out why these women's silhouettes are at the Moore County Courthouse.  This is an annual event for Safe Place to remind us of the women who have suffered.

These silhouette can be seen at the Courthouse in Dumas, Texas

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, everyone should want to know the meaning of The Silent Witness that are placed in front of the Dumas Courthouse and surrounding towns. Each one represents the story of woman whose life ended violently at the hands of a husband, ex-husband, partner, or acquaintance every year in the state of Texas. The Silent Witness provides hope, help and healing for the victims of domestic violence.

Each paper on each silhouette tells a story about a woman killed by a boyfriend ,spouse ex-spouse or partner.

In 1990, a group of women artists and writers, upset about the growing number of women in Minnesota being murdered by their partners or acquaintances, joined together with several other women's organizations to form Arts Action Against Domestic Violence. They felt an urgency to do something that would speak out against the escalating domestic violence in their state, something that would commemorate the lives of the 26 women whose lives had been lost in 1990 as a result of domestic violence. After much brainstorming, they decided to create 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.