From Birmingham to Delta State: How Authorities Still Erase Our Truth
Recent reports out of Mississippi are deeply disturbing, yet familiar. First, Demartravion “Trey” Reed, a 21-year-old Black student at Delta State University, was found hanging from a tree on central campus. Authorities quickly announced that there is “no evidence of foul play,” suggesting suicide as the leading hypothesis—despite competing accounts from family and community members about possible physical trauma.
Later that same day, Cory Zukatis, a 36-year-old unhoused man from Brandon, Mississippi, was found dead, hanging in a wooded area near Vicksburg. The early reporting is sparse; law enforcement has described the incident simply as a “death investigation.”
The Pattern of Dismissal
These are not isolated tragedies. What stands out is the rapidity with which authorities in these cases lean toward conclusions that avoid deeper scrutiny—especially the assertion “no foul play,” often before full investigations, autopsies, or community-eyewitness accounts can be properly considered. This pattern echoes historical deflection tactics: move quickly to frame these deaths, particularly of Black people, in ways that diminish scrutiny, limit accountability, and inhibit public outcry.
What Roots of Wisdom Scholars Stands For
We believe in:
Justice: Every life deserves a full, transparent investigation—physical evidence, autopsy results, witness statements, forensic analysis. Anything less is a betrayal of truth.
Transparency: Authorities must not close ranks, issue premature judgments, or bury questions that communities have a right to ask.
Accountability: Institutions—whether police, universities, or local government—must be held accountable when lives are lost under unclear or suspicious circumstances.
Memory and Community Safety: When deaths are treated with opacity, fear spreads—especially among Black students and unhoused communities who already feel marginalized and unsafe.
Call to Action
We call upon:
Law enforcement agencies (city, county, state) and university officials to release full autopsy findings and any investigative reports on both Trey Reed and Cory Zukatis, without delay.
University leadership at Delta State to open themselves to independent oversight, so the family and campus community can be assured that the truth is not being minimized.
Media outlets and community leaders to press for the full story—ask hard questions, amplify family voices, not just official statements.
All of us to demand that these deaths are not quietly closed off, that they don’t become another footnote of “we’ll never know,” which is a kind of injustice in itself.
Why We Must
History shows us that silence and quick dismissals have long been used to erase Black pain, to bury inconvenient truths, and to perpetuate systemic injustice. As with September 15, 1963, and so many other tragedies, knowing what really happened—recording it, demanding evidence, refusing erasure—is essential for healing, for collective memory, and for transformative justice.
Until there is full transparency, accountability, and justice for Trey and Cory, Roots of Wisdom Scholars stands in solidarity with their families, with the communities grieving, and with all who refuse to let this be swept under the rug.
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