Philadelphia Obituary Project
Victims of gun violence who have been featured by the Philadelphia Obituary Project.
Kimberly Kamara doesn’t celebrate the Fourth of July, and she can’t stand the sight and sound of fireworks.
The holiday is a grim reminder of July 4, 2017—the day her only son, twenty-three-year-old Niam Kairi Johnson-Tate, was shot several times in Germantown, a neighborhood in the northwest section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Kamara still vividly remembers receiving that heartbreaking phone call and rushing to the emergency room with her husband to wait for her son to arrive. “My heart just dropped out of my body. I just screamed,” Kamara tells The Progressive. The family hoped he would pull through while in the hospital, but Niam succumbed to his injuries. He was declared brain dead the next day.
In the aftermath of her son’s death, Kamara turned her pain into purpose by sharing his story on Facebook—and later in a children’s book she wrote titled Where’s My Daddy?. She wanted the public to know who Niam was beyond his untimely death. He was a father. He was the youngest of two children in his family, and enjoyed writing poetry. His mom described him as loyal, honest, curious, and selfless. His choice to be an organ donor saved the lives of seven people after his death. “The general public never gets to know who the whole person was,” Kamara says. “What were their attributes? Did they have any kids?”
In 2018, Kamara’s posts caught the attention of a columnist at the Philadelphia Obituary Project, a website that publishes profiles of victims of gun violence in Philadelphia. The writer encouraged her to publish her son’s story on their platform. Since publishing her son’s story on the Philadelphia Obituary Project, she has been writing obituaries of other gun violence victims on the site. “I’m glad I can help other families begin to heal,” Kamara says.
The Philadelphia Obituary Project documents gun violence in the city by celebrating the life stories of murder victims while also raising awareness about unsolved cases. According to the project, the goal is to comfort victims’ families and change the stigma around gun violence. Families of the victims share personal stories and photos of their loved ones to better depict who they were, and the devastating impact that gun violence had on their lives.
Since its launch in 2016, the project has published more than 400 memorial profiles, the most viewed of which has exceeded 17,000 views.
There are similar projects that have been created to remember people in their communities who lost their lives due to gun violence. Advocates in Washington, D.C., launched Homicide Watch, a community-based project documenting every murder in D.C.—from crime to conviction—using original reporting, court records, social media, and insights from those connected to victims and suspects.
The Homicide Watch site for Chicago, Illinois, shares every gun violence victim’s stories. It believes every murder matters. While some stories attract more attention, all involve human suffering that must be acknowledged.
And in Trenton, New Jersey, local newspaper The Trentonian sponsors a Homicide Watch site to provide clear information about homicides and tools to document cases and share experiences.
In 2023, 46,728 people died from gun-related injuries in the United States—down for the second year in a row, but still one of the highest yearly death tolls on record, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Regardless, advocates for gun violence prevention consider such a high number to be a public health emergency.
In April of this year, The Philadelphia Obituary Project launched Writing Heals, an initiative that helps family members share heartfelt and uplifting stories about their loved ones on the site. Families receive $200 for sharing these stories about individuals who are often overlooked by the mainstream media, according to Albert Stumm, the organization’s executive director.
Family members are required to go through an hour-long training session offered once a month in which they learn how to craft personal and positive narratives about their relatives.
“We’re training family members of the victims to write the stories themselves,” Stumm says. “That gets us more directly involved in the community, and it gives us a better representation of the people who are being affected.”
Participants must be at least eighteen years of age. Each family is limited to one participant, and individuals who have previously participated in the project can not participate again.
This effort supports families who need help and also brings the Philadelphia Obituary Project closer to creating a caring and united community.
This work supports families who need help and also brings the Philadelphia Obituary Project closer to creating a compassionate and more connected community.
Joshua Horwitz, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions in Baltimore, Maryland, says the Philadelphia Obituary Project provides an outlet for families to heal and grieve while also informing the public. Horwitz calls this type of project a gateway for people to open up about their grief and begin the healing process.
“What people want to do is they want to get involved and they want to do something that speaks to them,” Horwitz says. “Not everybody wants to go to the legislature and start talking to a legislator right away. They may be very traumatized from a shooting.”
Horwitz also believes that personal involvement could lead to reducing gun violence.
“I think in ways this project can bring people in, but then also give them other things that might fulfill that need they have. And that may be developing a new community intervention program, working on gun violence intervention programs, [and] working on gun violence prevention legislation at the state or the federal level.”
Editor's note: This article was updated to correct a transcription error in one of the quoted statements.