Somebody knows something.
Someone knows what happened to Nolan Wells, the 18-year-old Mississippi college student who ventured to Horn Island with his “friends” on July 4, 2026, and never returned home.
At the very least, (much) more is known than what has currently been revealed.
I have a 7-year-old Black son. Since the news broke about Nolan, it has been hard to not think about him. And even harder not to think about Nolan’s mother, Christine and his father, Elmore.
Mothers fret over crib and car seat selections. Is it safe? Durable? In our budget? We question if we’re choosing the right school for our child. Will they be challenged academically yet nurtured emotionally? We at least attempt to provide the best home life for our babies within our means and that’s whether we are receiving public assistance or a billionaire. What we do not expect to ever ponder is the type of casket our child should be laid to rest in just a month before their 19th birthday.
No mother should ever have to bury their child. It goes against the natural order of life.
When such an unimaginable event does occur, the assumption is that there would be a reason one can maybe begin to wrap their head around: perhaps a health-related cause, a fatal car crash or even an unfortunate misunderstanding gone terribly wrong.
But to go to bed every night for nearly month and not know what caused your child’s sudden death is an excruciating pain that no parent should be forced to endure.
But somehow, it feels like Black parents are simply expected to accept that they don’t deserve the same decencies as other parents.
How else can we explain how the parties involved can watch Nolan’s parents cry on television, pour out their hearts via social media and plead to anyone who will listen for information that can help them finally get justice for their deceased son?
This sh*t hurts.
As if that hurt is not enough, there is an active movement to seemingly make Christine and Elmore’s lives even more painful. Too many folks connected to this tragedy want to talk about any and everything except what really happen to Nolan Xavier Wells. The deflection is pathetic.
1 – Oh, he was drinking.
A college student out with his “buddies” during a holiday weekend excursion and people are shocked at the idea that there might have been alcohol in his system? Miss me with the bullsh*t. Whether Nolan Wells had alcohol in his system or not, it is irrelevant as to why we still don’t have answers for his tragic death. But oh yeah, Black people are not allowed to exist in the same way as their peers so let’s make this a distraction, er, I mean headline.
2 – Somehow in many media outlets, Nolan is being referred to as a man but his “friends” who are all about the same age are referred to as teens. Strange, right?
As an editor, I immediately recognize this trickery when I observe it. As a Black mother, it is heartbreaking. Language is important. Our children don’t get the pleasure of fully enjoying their childhood and adolescence as freely as their counterparts of other races. At least they rarely do without a lot of intentional effort from their parents. It starts way earlier than age 18. Ask me how I know. (And again, my son is only 7.)
3 – Attorney Benjamin Crump and Rev. Al Sharpton have been widely accused of causing division.
Blank stare.
4 – These “friends” Nolan was with leading up to his mysterious death have not been scrutinized by the media as they would have likely been if they were Black.
There are rising questions surrounding whether or not photos and videos were deleted from Nolan’s phone and social media accounts. It is…odd. Also odd is how these “friends” of Nolan’s are being treated with kid gloves and yet if they were Black we would likely know when each of them served detention for cutting an 11th grade Spanish class. We recognize what it is, but that doesn’t make it any less painful to observe. Again, the rules are apparently different for our babies.
5 – People are actually leaving nasty reviews online for the business of Nolan’s mother, Christine.
This is perhaps the most disgusting of all the before mentioned points. As if Christine is not navigating enough, her livelihood as a family nurse practitioner is being attacked. Over the past couple of weeks, the grieving mother has experienced negative reviews on her business page which appear to be connected to the death of Nolan and her pleading for answers regarding the tragedy. Her attorney Benjamin Crump shared the below this week during a press conference:
“Christine has been a nurse for years, and she hasn’t ever gotten negative reviews. But since she has been advocating to find out what happened to her 18-year-old son after he was washed up dead on Horn Island, sick people have been going on her company’s website giving her negative reviews. Can you all imagine anything worse than that?” he continued. “They are just sick, evil people who would attack this mother and this father for simply saying, ‘We want to know what happened to our child.’ Don’t worry Christine, we are standing with you.”
Being a Black parent can feel incredibly scary, frustrating and depressing for reasons that should not exist in 2026 and never should have existed. And some people have the nerve to wonder why we intentionally chase and celebrate our joy?
Why wouldn’t the grieving parents and village of a young life expect to receive details around his mysterious death? But when we factor in that our lives are not valued, it sadly tracks. Still, this ish hurts like hell for me as a human being and especially as the mother of a Black son.
Tabitha Brown, also a mother of a Black son, is feeling the pain too.
There’s no neat and tidy way to end this article. I have had to stop while writing it more than once because the hurt is real. Nolan’s mom Christine has begged for us all to keep saying his name and so I will. I hope you continue to do so, too.
Nolan Xavier Wells.
Author: Bridgette Bartlett Royall
Read the original article on Essence.
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