Today, NAACP President Derrick Johnson announced that the NAACP Office of General Counsel is joining attorney Ben Crump to represent the family of Nolan Wells.Â
Nolan Wells, an 18-year-old Mississippi resident, went missing on July 4, 2026 after attending an Independence Day gathering on an island off the Mississippi Gulf Coast. His body was recovered two days later on the shoreline of the island. Many suspicious circumstances surround Wells’s death. Wells was one of few Black attendees at a mostly white gathering in Mississippi, and his friends reportedly left him on the island but returned with Wells’s cell phone and car keys. The official investigation raised more questions than it answered.
As NAACP President Johnson stated in his announcement, “the ugly truth is, Nolan Wells isn’t alone.”
His death is the latest in a long line of cases where Black families have been left with pain and questions. Too often, our communities are forced to fight for the truth after a loved one dies under unclear circumstances.
Read the full announcement on the NAACP’s web site.
