If Caylee Anthony had been black, would you know her name?

Washington Post | July 8, 2011

Here’s a quiz: Which names do you recognize?

Aja. N’Kiah. Tatianna. Brittany. Caylee.

All five girls, authorities said, were killed by their mothers. Yet it’s likely that, besides their family and friends, not many people remember sisters Aja Fogle, 5, N’Kiah Fogle, 6, Tatianna Jacks, 11, and Brittany Jacks, 16. In 2008, when their decaying bodies were found in their mother’s Southeast Washington rowhouse, their faces weren’t splashed on the covers of magazines, and their deaths weren’t the subject of debate on national news programs.

The contrast to the story of 2-year-old Caylee Anthony, who also died in 2008, and whose face has graced numerous magazine pages and prime-time television specials, could not be more stark.

Banita Jacks, now 36, the mother of the four girls found dead in Washington, was convicted of her daughters’ murders and sentenced to 120 years in prison. Caylee’s killer has not been convicted, though prosecutors charged her mother, Casey Anthony, 25, with her daughter’s slaying. A Florida jury acquitted her of the murder charge this past week, and she will spend a handful of additional days in prison for lying to the police.  (Read more)