The Wells family was grieving the sudden loss of their 18-year-old son, Nolan – a good kid and an athlete with a bright future – after a Fourth of July trip to Horn Island. In that raw moment of pain, they deserved space, answers, and support from their community.
Instead, they were steered into a national, rumor-filled and race-baited spectacle.
Ben Crump parachutes in to save the day and crap on Mississippi, quickly questioning whether Mississippi law enforcement would investigate fairly “if the roles were reversed” and irresponsibly spreading rumors and misinformation.
Rev. Al Sharpton did exactly what you would have expected him to do, invoking our history, declaring this “smacks some of the fears we’ve had historically” in Mississippi.
National outlets amplified the scripts, some running full speed with rumors, and trashed Mississippi.
What should have remained a local tragedy became another chapter in the familiar “racist Mississippi” narrative, complete with outside lawyers, press conferences, fundraising appeals, and a wing of the media ready and willing to accommodate.
This is exactly how tragedies are exploited. A grieving family is told the system cannot be trusted. Doubts are stoked before facts are known. Local relationships are ignored. The result is division that profits outsiders wile piling more pain on those already hurting.
Here on the Coast, the reaction has been one of deep disappointment and betrayal. Friends at church whose nephew grew up with Nolan and my sister Mitzi who taught in Ocean Springs schools for many years are heartsick. She knows the accepting community these kids grew up in. They knew the brotherly bond Nolan shared with his friends. They were Black and White young men who boated together, hung out together, and lived together with zero racism in their circle.
The quick pivot to a racial frame felt jarring to everyone who knew the reality of their friendships and this community.
Sheriff John Ledbetter, District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath, and Department of Public Safety Sean Tindell, among many other in the law enforcement community here, are excellent leaders with strong track records of fairness. They are treating this case thoroughly. The investigation remains active. Autopsy and toxicology results are pending.
In my book, “Finding Hope,” which comes out Aug. 29, I share the story of Lynn and Ron Dickerson. Their son, Ryan – an amazing 18-year-old Eagle Scout, water polo star, and lifeguard – drowned while volunteering at Camp Champions in Texas. Even with clear evidence of drowning, they never got full closure. The questions linger.
That painful reality may also linger in the Nolan Wells case, too, because we may never really know exactly what happened, and that is why speculation may, sadly, continue to fill the void. That was destined to be hard even before the irresponsible Crump Train rolled into town.
I believe the Wells family was used by a race-baiting, ambulance-chasing machine that profits from keeping old wounds open. National media and irresponsible voices ran with rumors instead of waiting for facts.
Some may say a white guy like me has no voice on these matters. But my children and grandchildren have been raised in a different Mississippi. Nolan Wells was raised in that same Mississippi. That image is powerful. It is who we have become.
I have heard from so many people, Black and White, expressing the same disappointment: the community that embraced Nolan and his friends was turned on so quickly.
This is not the Mississippi of the past. It is the Mississippi of today. If you don’t know us, I wish you did. You would be touched deeply by what is in the hearts and souls of most Mississippians. Then you would understand why so many here are so deeply hurt by the pictures these vultures who descended on us paint of us. It honestly and truly sucks.
I respect that some carry experiences that make my pride in our progress feel insufficient. We will still have work to do. Every state does. Yet this tragedy should not have been hijacked for a national narrative that no longer fits the Mississippi we live in every day.
I cry for Nolan, his family, his friends, Ocean Springs, the Coast, and all of Mississippi. We deserve better than this. I wish I had known Nolan Wells. God rest his soul. May God’s peace help this family and our community heal from what was already a devastating loss before the outsiders arrived.
The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of SuperTalk Mississippi Media.
