Why Did Nolan Xavier Wells’ Family Call Ben Crump Before They Had Answers?

Eighteen-year-old Nolan Xavier Wells left for a Fourth of July outing on Horn Island, a barrier island off the Mississippi Gulf Coast, with a group of friends. He never came home. After an extensive search, his body was recovered. As of yet, investigators have not released a cause of death, and the investigation remains ongoing.

Nolan’s friends are reportedly cooperating with law enforcement, and officials say they are still working to determine exactly what happened. But then came another headline. Nolan’s family retained civil rights attorney Ben Crump.

When I saw that headline, my first thought wasn’t, “I wonder what Ben Crump knows.” Because somewhere along the way, many Black families learned that grief alone isn’t enough. Sometimes you have to hire accountability.

A Black eighteen-year-old dies under circumstances with his white friends that remain unclear. Before there is an autopsy. Before there are official conclusions. Before anyone knows whether this was a tragic accident, a crime, or something else entirely, the family decides they need one of the country’s most prominent civil rights attorneys standing beside them.

That isn’t just a legal decision. It’s a cultural one. For many Black families, hiring an attorney like Ben Crump…