Donnel Coney

Donnel Coney, a 47-year-old Black man from Detroit, Michigan, died on June 2, 2013, closing a life that began on February 27, 1966. In the days that followed, those who loved him were left to do what families have done for generations after a sudden loss: gather, mourn, and try to make sense of the empty space left behind.

Public memorial records indicate he was laid to rest at Lincoln Memorial Park in Clinton Township, Michigan. Beyond those anchor points—his birth, his death date, an ...