Transcript:

00:00:05 Michele Goodwin:

Welcome to On the Issues with Michele Goodwin at Ms. magazine. As you know, we are a show that reports, rebels, and we tell it just like it is. On this show, we center your concerns about rebuilding our nation and advancing the promise of equality. So, join me as we tackle the most compelling issues of our times. On our show, history matters. We examine the past as we think about the future, and in today’s episode, it’s a special PSA that acknowledges the passing, the tragic death of Nolan Xavier Wells.

00:00:43

And it’s a PSA about reproductive justice, because we very well recognize that reproductive justice is not limited to the time of a pregnancy or after birth or its termination, but reproductive justice is a matter that expands the lifetime, really. It’s certainly the spectrum of, one, becoming a parent, a mother, after your child is born, and we know that, given the conditions of our times and of the past and the realities of our nation, that there are mothers that have to be concerned about their children not just lasting into whether they can crawl or walk or run, but lingers into the times in which they go to school and the time in which they become teenagers and even into early adulthood.

00:01:38

This has, certainly, been the honest take about our America and for certain mothers who have to carry the weight of worry and concern with them about whether their children will come home safe and sound. It is that part that grips a mother in her throat and can be that punch in the gut when she worries, whether it’s a sleepover, whether it is the first time that they’re driving without a parent in the car, or frankly, driving when a parent is in the car. In this episode, we take a quick look at Nolan Xavier Wells’ passing and what has been the discourse that has followed it to lift it up as a PSA for that young man and his family. Sit back and take a listen.

00:02:41

At Ms. Studios and Ms. magazine, we have long recognized that reproductive justice is not a matter that begins and ends with pregnancy. Not at all. Rather, the call for reproductive justice endures after birth, into childhood, and teenage years for so many mothers, especially Black moms. Mamie Till-Mobley comes to mind. Her son Emmett Till was murdered in a sleepy Mississippi town, Drew, Mississippi. His abductors, his murderers came to his relative’s home. They kidnapped him. They beat him. They shot him. They lynched him.

00:03:28

A cotton gin was tied around Emmett Till’s neck, and he was tossed into the Tallahatchie River. His bloated, dead body was later recovered, and his murderers were put on trial. They were acquitted in record time by an all-male, all-white jury, and yet, they admitted to what they did. They confessed in Look magazine. It’s an article that I’ve read, that I found in the archives, and that I read to understand why it is that they would do such a horrific thing to a person who had just turned 14 years old. Mamie Till, Emmett’s mother, refused to have a closed casket. She wanted America and in fact, the world, to see what had happened to her son.

00:04:28

His killers’ confession in Look magazine is stunning for its brazenness, but you know, it’s not just Emmett Till and his story or Mamie Till and her courage, what she did in showing his face, in showing what can happen to a young Black male, a child, in Mississippi, and why there was such terror that gripped Black people in Mississippi, not just in the 1600s, 1700s, 1800s, or early 1900s. No, we’re talking about just a few decades ago, and in fact, we’re talking about a time and place in our country, even now.

00:05:15

I’m thinking about Trayvon Martin. He comes to mind, and his mother’s agony, her effort to try to get people to pay attention to his death. He was killed in Florida, just after his 17th birthday, on a night when he was walking home, carrying Skittles and a bottle of iced tea. The man who killed him was found not guilty for doing so, even though, during the period right before George Zimmerman confronted Trayvon, who was unarmed, only carrying Skittles and iced tea, he had been told, George Zimmerman, to leave this young man alone. George Zimmerman’s suspicion with regard to Trayvon Martin related to Trayvon wearing a hoodie.

00:06:19

It gripped my heart and caused considerable heartbreak for me after Trayvon’s death, because I had just gotten back from visiting my daughter during her year abroad in China, and the last thing that I had given her before returning to the United States was a hoodie. It had a dragon on it. It was red, and I was convinced that it could keep her warm. That having a hood over her head would keep her ears warm. I was devastated when I arrived back in the United States and was in a Delta Lounge waiting for my connecting flight and looked up at a screen and saw the story about Trayvon Martin and that the suspicion with regard to whether he belonged had much to do with a hoodie.

00:07:07

But hoodies aside, I think about Tamir Rice, 12 years old, shot dead by Timothy Loehmann within mere seconds upon encountering this child as he was in a park holding a toy gun, toy weapon, which many children do play with in parks. There were no questions asked. It was within seconds that this child was killed, and I think about his mother, and I think about this as a reproductive justice issue, that concern as to whether your child will survive not just a pregnancy, not just a stage in a toddler…toddler stage, but whether that child will survive elementary school, middle school, high school, into college.

00:08:05

I once had a professor from Florida on this podcast, and that professor, a Black mom, law professor, civil rights advocate, expressed to me that her son went to an elite private school in Kentucky and was a great student, prepared for college, and had white friends, and her concern was not with the friends. They were lovely young boys, but the concern that she had was whether her son would be treated as his friends were if they were to go after school and do the things that are innocuous for most, but not necessarily if you happen to be a Black youth, such as just simply going out for hamburgers, ride in the car, what that might mean for her son, and the way in which that fear gripped her heart as a mom. How do you be fair to your kid to allow your kid to be out in the world, and yet, at the same time, the worry as to whether your child will actually come home safely?

00:09:11

I think even about the reproductive justice as being an enduring concern beyond pregnancy and birth with regard to Ruby Bridges. She integrated William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana in 1968. You might wonder, why does reproductive justice come to mind with regard to Ruby Bridges? She integrated an all-white school. All-white because it had segregated, had refused to admit Black students, and then Ruby Bridges and several other young Black girls integrated that school, but in the time that they did, all-white moms outside of the school demanded their death, lynching of these little girls. When you think about this child, her mother Lucille Bridges…and with that, then we know that reproductive justice just isn’t about birth. It’s so much more. For Lucille, it was about her daughter being able to flourish in a society where, in Jim Crow and Jane Crow, racial segregation, and discrimination were the normalized landscape.

00:10:32

Horn Island is a barrier island sitting off the coast of Mississippi. It stretches through various small enclaves all the way to Florida and Mississippi. It’s owned by all of us, meaning the federal government, and it’s managed by the National Park Service as part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. The National Park Service described it as a quiet, unspoiled island that sits about eight miles off the coast, but that island has now become the scene of a tragic death, and the reverberations are being felt across the country, and indeed, around the world, with reporters from the BBC, news outlets in India, and elsewhere, raising questions about Nolan Xavier Wells and his tragic death.

00:11:31

Nolan vanished on July 4th, and his body was found on the 6th of July in an area his parents say had previously been searched, and this was his last weekend before returning to school, preparing for football camp, which his father said that he had become serious about. So, who is Nolan Xavier Wells, and why has his death become a point of news media and concern? It was an 18-year-old teen found dead on Horn Island, right off the coast of Mississippi, after an outing with several friends, who happened to be white. Nolan was Black.

00:12:27

Nolan graduated from Ocean Springs High School, where he was described as a terrific student, a multi-sport athlete, and a great friend. His parents, Christine Wells Wonsley and Elmore Wonsley, are seeking answers. They want to know what exactly happened to their son. There are those that’ve come forward to say what a wonderful young man Nolan happened to be. Jake Bramlett, Ocean Springs High School football coach, said in a statement that we are devastated by Nolan’s passing. He was the kind of son, teammate, friend, and student that every coach hopes to have in a program. He noted that Nolan was so much more than an outstanding football player.

00:13:24

“He carried himself with humility, treated others with respect, worked hard, and led by example”. According to the coach, Nolan’s “character spoke louder than his accomplishments, and he was loved deeply by his teammates and his coaches.”  Nolan’s former principal, high school principal, had similar warm words to say. Jacob Dykes said that “Nolan will be remembered as an extremely kind and hardworking young man who left a lasting impression on his teachers, his coaches, his teammates, and community. He closed by saying that our thoughts are with his family and the many people he made a lasting impact on.”

00:14:19

That’s been the general sentiment about Nolan Wells. After graduation, he enrolled in the Southwest Mississippi Community College and played football there, but serious questions have been raised by Nolan’s death and Mississippi law enforcement’s commitment to searching for the truth and thoroughly investigating how he died, where exactly he died, the circumstances, and whether anyone was involved. According to Nolan’s mother, he would always check in to say that he was back, if he had come back with friends, or was staying over at a friend’s house, but not this time.

00:15:12

The call that Nolan’s mother received late night on July the 4th was actually from a friend, and this friend was also on the boat and Horn Island with him. This friend is named Wyatt. There are a number of questions that come to mind. Why did Nolan’s friends leave him on the island? They say that he voluntarily stayed behind. On Good Morning America, Nolan’s parents rejected that. Here’s what Nolan’s dad had to say.

00:15:53

“We always tell him, if you go with a group, then you stay with the group.”

As noted by the BBC, the National Park Service describes Horn Island as a place where there is no staff, no drinking water, no shelter, no facilities, or communication. With that said, why would Nolan choose to stay behind? There are other questions. When exactly did Nolan’s friends leave, and if Nolan stayed behind, why didn’t anyone else offer him a ride back? Surely, there must’ve been somebody on that island who, seeing Nolan all alone and by himself, would’ve said, do you need a ride back? How can we help you get back to shore? Was there nobody on the island who could offer that to him on that day?

00:16:56

One has to note that this is an island where you have to have a boat to get there or a kayak, and you’re going to be kayaking for some time. This is a question that has been raised about Nolan drowning, which is how law enforcement have described his death, that he drowned. His parents say that he was a swimmer, that he knew how to swim. If he did die on the island, did anybody see him drowning, and was it that no one could provide help or assistance to him if he was drowning, while he was drowning?

00:17:33

Now, I should say that, in the United States, there is no obligation to actually render someone aid if they actually happen to be drowning. We’re a society that has a no duty to rescue rule. We don’t have a Good Samaritan rule where people are obligated to support and help each other. There were some other questions that emerged, and you could see that in this Good Morning America and in the parents’ press conferences that they have held. For example, why is it that Nolan’s friends came to have his cell phone? Did Nolan just leave it on the boat by accident, and then, by accident or happenstance, they seemed to have it on the boat and then have it with them while Nolan didn’t?

00:18:26

And if they had Nolan’s phone and knew that Nolan was left on the island, wouldn’t that have been a point of concern where they might have, earlier, contacted Nolan’s parents, his mother? There are other questions, too. When did his friends realize that they had his phone? There are questions about whether there were messages on the phone that were deleted. When was the phone actually returned? According to Nolan’s parents, it appears that there were either messages that had been deleted or photos deleted or that Nolan didn’t take photos while he was out with his friends, which, again, his parents say would be unusual that he wouldn’t take photos on his phone.

00:19:11

His mother did find it to be strange that Nolan’s phone had to be tracked, and we’ll talk about that in just a moment, but why did his friends not turn over his phone as soon as it was discovered? According to Nolan’s mother, she tracked the phone using Life360. Nolan’s other friends, who had not gone to Horn Island and were not with him on that trip, those friends began searching for his location and looking at Snapchat to try to find his location. This is how they tracked each other, and the Life360 and the Snapchat’s didn’t, necessarily, match up, according to Nolan’s mother. After they pulled up these Snapchats, didn’t necessarily correlate to the 360.

00:20:02

His mother noticed that these locations looked different than on the Life360 location of the app. So, why did his mother have to track his phone, and why didn’t the person who had the phone give it over easily to Nolan’s mother’s friend, who went to retrieve it? Why were there issues obtaining keys to Nolan’s car? According to Nolan’s father, there was some discussion around that. The keys couldn’t be located, but ultimately, the keys were located, and Nolan was able…Nolan’s father was able, then, to obtain the car. According to Nolan’s father, it seemed to be a bit of a runaround.

00:20:48

Now, Nolan’s parents are deeply concerned about their son and deeply concerned about what happened to their son, and they want answers, and they’re not alone. Nolan’s grandfather has also come forward to say that there are things that he’s concerned about. “Too many unanswered questions,” he says. “How can an island that was searched yesterday, he said, produce my grandson’s body this morning? This is him saying, produce the body on the morning of July 6th, when the island was searched on July 5th? He says that there’s nothing right about this.”

00:21:26

“Nolan Xavier Wells deserved the same things that people he knew and associated with enjoy in life.” Nolan’s family has hired an attorney, the civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, and they have ordered an autopsy that will take place outside of Mississippi. This is because, as they have expressed, they do not trust local authorities. So, what’s now? The parents want and deserve a thorough investigation. Christine and Elmore Wonsley Wells want to know what happened to their child.

00:22:15

According to Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter, “the friends left Horn Island and went back without Nolan.” He went on to say, “from what we understand, he chose to stay there,” meaning Nolan chose to stay there, and the sheriff continued, saying “there’s no information that we have right now that would lead us to believe that a crime has occurred.”  Authorities said they believe that Nolan drowned and suspect no foul play. Yet, Nolan’s parents and the public are now demanding answers.

00:22:54

With Life360 showing that he been on land, had law enforcement corroborated this with video footage, had law enforcement questioned the friends with whom he traveled to Horn Island and their parents, had authorities tracked Nolan’s phone and saw video evidence that aligns with its location? Finally, none of this happened in a vacuum. Others were on Horn Island with these young people. What did they see?

00:23:28

This is a PSA, and so, with this PSA, I want to close with a quote from Mamie Till-Mobley, again, the mother of Emmett Till, another young person whose tragic death and the tale of his life have served as an important lesson in America, an important lesson about Mississippi, and an important lesson about law enforcement, and an important lesson about culture and things that we’re still trying to overcome in the United States. I think that by the very fact that Nolan’s mother, and father, too, have had to plead with the public as much as they have expresses a bit about the sort of arc of more work that we have to do in our society.

00:24:30

Here’s what Mamie Till-Mobley had to say, and I’ll end with this quote.

“Two months ago, I had a nice apartment in Chicago. I had a good job. I had a son. When something happened to the Negroes in the South, I said that’s their business, not mine. Now I know how wrong I was. The murder of my son has shown me that what happens to any of us anywhere in the world had to better be the business of all of us.”

Mamie insisted on an open casket for her son, explaining that she wanted the world to see what they had done to her son, and 70 years later, the echoes of her words continue to resonate. That’s it.

00:25:32

This has been your host, Michele Goodwin, reporting, rebelling, and telling it just like it is on this very special PSA episode about Nolan Xavier Wells. On the Issues with Michele Goodwin is a Ms. Magazine and Ms. Studios joint production. I’m Michele Goodwin, your executive producer, and our producers for this episode are Roxy Szal, Oliver Haug, Allison Whelan. Our social media intern is Emerson Panigrahi. The creative vision behind our work includes art and design by Brandi Phipps, editing by Natalie Paredes, and music by Chris J. Lee. We’re grateful for you tuning in, and please do tune in for our next episode, where we will surely be reporting, rebelling, and as usual, telling it just like it is.