Recent death of the student in Mississippi is just the latest in a long string of unsettling deaths of young Black people

On Wednesday afternoon, hundreds of students gathered on the Jackson State University (JSU) campus for a rally to call for transparency in the mysterious death of young Black people and to encourage student engagement in politics and the fight for voting rights.

As the sun began to set, the students, many of whom wore black, marched through the historically Black university’s plaza chanting: “Nolan Wells, Trey Reed, Tasia Fortune, Kohen Wiley, Jaylen Lewis – Black Lives Matter!” All five were young Black Mississippians – the youngest, Wiley, was one-year-old while the eldest, Fortune, was 29 – who either died under suspicious circumstances or were killed by police.

Lawyers for Wells’s family have called for a federal investigation into 18-year-old’s disappearance and death

On Wednesday, Donald Trump said he was considering asking the FBI to investigate the death of Nolan Wells, a Black college freshman who was last seen alive on a 4 July boating trip with friends.

Wells, 18, went missing while on Horn Island, a barrier island off the coast of Mississippi. His body was found on the island two days later. Wells’s cause and manner of death are still undetermined.