Billey Joe Johnson was a Black boy dating a White girl. That made the story behind his death even more complicated.

Sarah Mirk
Digital Engagement Producer
Sarah Mirk (she/her) was a digital engagement producer for Reveal. Since 2017, she has worked as an editor at The Nib, an online daily comics publication focused on political cartoons, graphic journalism, essays and memoirs about current affairs. She works with artists to create nonfiction comics on a variety of complex topics, from personal narratives about queer identities to examinations of overlooked history. Before that, Mirk was the online editor of national feminist media outlet Bitch, a podcast host and a local news reporter. She is also the author of several books, including “Year of Zines,” a collection of 100 handmade zines, and “Guantanamo Voices,” a collection of illustrated oral histories of the world’s most infamous prison.
Mississippi Goddam Chapter 4: The Investigator
When a detective with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation finds out what Reveal has uncovered, he begins to wonder whether the case should be reopened.
Mississippi Goddam Chapter 2: The Aftermath
On the morning of Billey Joe Johnson’s death, crime scene tape separates the Johnsons from their son’s body. Their shaky faith in the criminal justice system buckles as authorities fail to follow up on inconsistencies in the official story.
Mississippi Goddam Chapter 1: The Promise
Billey Joe Johnson Jr. was a high school football star headed for the big time. Then, early one morning in 2008, the Black teenager died during a traffic stop with a White deputy. His family’s been searching for answers ever since.
Episode: When Abusers Keep Their Guns
By law, domestic abusers are banned from owning guns. But too often, those laws aren’t enforced, and the consequences can be deadly.
Forever Wars
On 9/11, the U.S. swore to “never forget.” But who gets remembered? We hear from reporters on Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen, where the aftermath of 9/11 is acutely felt two decades later.
Fighting Fire With Fire
As climate change continues making wildfires worse, how do we learn to live with fire?
For 20 years, I saw no peace
As the Taliban take over Kabul, an Afghan poet, a journalist fielding desperate phone calls and an American veteran reflect on the past and future of Afghanistan.
Minor violations
Kids who cross the border alone are held in government-funded shelters. When they misbehave, staff sometimes call police. And kids are getting arrested, jailed – sometimes even tased.
The teen reporter, the evictions and the church
Three stories from local reporters who uncovered injustice and inequality in their hometowns, from an Ohio eviction crisis to Kentucky state police training materials that quoted Adolf Hitler.