On the evening of January 29, a black woman, Kiah Duggins, was returning to Washington, D.C., after a vacation to her hometown in the Midwest, a trip she had made many times before. She had come to support her mother throughout surgery, so this visit was different. Her family also saw the 30-year-old civil rights lawyer alive for the very final time.
A Black Hawk chopper struck an American Airlines aircraft on its way to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, killing 67 people, including Duggins. It was the deadliest airline catastrophe in the nation since 2001, sending both planes crashing into the Potomac River in midair with no survivors.
RIP ❤️ Professor Kiah Duggins was among those lost in the mid-air plane collision at Reagan National Airport. Professor Duggins was set to begin a new chapter as a professor at Howard University School of Law this fall. May her memory be a blessing. pic.twitter.com/MvgUYvgMrC
— Ana Lucia Araujo, PhD (@araujohistorian) January 31, 2025
Due to her mother’s double mastectomy two days before the plane disaster, Duggins was in Wichita. She would have celebrated her 31st birthday on Tuesday, September 16. “She came to Wichita, really, to support me,” Gwen tells PEOPLE nearly a year later. “I had been diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time.”
Despite living over a thousand miles apart, the mother-daughter pair spoke on the phone almost daily. Her mother recalls a common chant in their home as Kiah and her brothers, Aisha and Donovan, grew up: “The woman who had dropped everything that week to show up for her family had been partial to defending those who needed her since she was a girl.”
“Even in elementary school, she would take up for the kids that other kids bullied,” Gwen says. One summer as a youngster, Kiah watched Michelle Obama speak at the Democratic National Convention on television. She was enthralled right away and later informed her family that she hoped to work as an intern for her in the future.
Gwen remembers laughing with Kiah’s father about their young daughter having ambitious goals, but Kiah achieved them after a few years and several tries. While still a college student, she worked as an intern for the White House’s Let Girls Learn program, which sought to provide high-quality education for adolescent girls.
Our hearts are heavy as we send love to the families of Danasia Elder & Kiah Duggins, Esq. We honor their light, impact, & the love they shared. May their families find strength in the love surrounding them. #WinWithBlackWomen pic.twitter.com/TrjzNPxvkc
— Win With Black Women (@WinWithBLKWomen) February 2, 2025
The Obamas contacted the Duggins family following the crash. To the family, the Obamas wrote, “Barack and I were heartbroken to learn about Kiah’s passing,” which PEOPLE was able to get. “It didn’t take much to realize how special she was,” they wrote of her internship. “Kiah went above and beyond on every task. At every Let Girls Learn meeting, she was the first to show up and the last to leave. When high school students visited, she was quick to offer a word of wisdom or encouragement.”
Once, the whole Duggins family used a group chat to stay in touch over long distances. Gwen now claims that the dynamic of their family has been ruined by her daughter’s absence, leaving an unfilled void. Clutching to her religion, Gwen acknowledges that questioning the hand life has dealt her is a natural human reaction to grief.
