Some stories follow us.

They follow us through history, across state lines, and from one generation to the next, forcing us to confront bitter realities and difficult questions.

They ask difficult questions about whose lives are remembered, whose deaths are investigated, and what happens when an official conclusion leaves a family with more questions than answers.

In my latest piece for The Black Wall Street Times, I examine and confront those questions in an open letter to Mississippi following the death of Nolan Xavier Wells.

Titled “Mississippi Godayum: An Open Letter To A State With A Song Of Silence,” the essay examines the circumstances surrounding Wells’ death and the September 2026 decision by a Mississippi grand jury not to indict anyone in connection with the case.

Framed within the limits of forensic evidence, the meaning of an undetermined cause and manner of death, and the difference between a legal decision and an answer for a grieving family, I consider Wells’ story within the larger historical memory of Black Americans and Mississippi—a state whose history includes some of the most notorious acts of racial violence in American history.

As we consider the broader implications of his story, we must not forget that Nolan Wells was more than the circumstances of his disappearance.

He was also a son, an athlete, a friend, and a young man whose life should have continued.

Check out my full essay, “Mississippi Godayum: An Open Letter To A State With A Song Of Silence,” in The Black Wall Street Times. Read the full essay.