(ATLANTA) — Atlanta rappers Young Thug and Gunna were hit with gang-related charges in a case that sent shock waves through the music industry and spotlighted the controversial use of rap lyrics as evidence in court.

“[Young Thug] came out of a very desperate situation,” Atlanta rapper and activist Killer Mike told “Good Morning America.”

“The side of town he comes from — Cleveland Avenue, southeast Atlanta — has been wrought with poverty forever … he managed to escape the streets using rap lyrics, and he’s managed to help people change their lives.”

But now some of those lyrics have been named in a sweeping 56-count grand jury indictment in Fulton County, Georgia.

Young Thug, whose legal name is Jeffrey Williams, and Gunna, who name is Sergio Kitchens, were each charged with one count of conspiring to violate the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) act and have entered not guilty pleas.

Young Thug is also charged with an additional count of participating in street gang activity, according to charging documents obtained by ABC News.

Top music executives launched a Change.org petition this week, calling for the protection of Black art and legislation that addresses the criminalization of rap lyrics.

“Today in courtrooms across America, Black creativity and artistry is being criminalized,” wrote 300 Entertainment CEO Kevin Liles. “With increasing and troubling frequency, prosecutors are attempting to use rap lyrics as confessions. This practice isn’t just a violation of First Amendment protections for speech and creative expression. It punishes already marginalized communities and silences their stories of family, struggle, survival, and triumph.”

Killer Mike, whose real name is Michael Render, is a longtime advocate against the use of rap lyrics in court. He said it’s important to remember that hip-hop is a form of entertainment and artists are performers who play characters.

“Young Thug — that’s a character that Jeffrey Williams created … but Jeffrey Williams is a father,” he said. “He’s a human being that’s capable of love, care and compassion.”

Erik Nielson, the author of “Rap on Trial,” told “GMA” he has advised and testified in close to 100 cases around the country in which rap lyrics were used as evidence in court — a practice that often targets amateur local rappers.

“I was surprised that prosecutors were brazen enough to go after somebody as well known as Young Thug,” Nielson said.” “But I was also surprised at the extent to which lyrics seem to be part of the prosecution as part of their early argument that he is involved in criminal activity.” .

Young Thug was among 28 people listed allegedly associated with the Atlanta-based Young Slime Life (YSL) gang, which authorities say he co-founded in 2012. YSL is also the name of Young Thug’s record label, Young Stoner Life, to which Gunna is also signed. It is an imprint of 300 Entertainment and is not named in the indictment.

Court documents detail instances where individuals allegedly associated with the YSL gang wore or displayed symbols of “YSL” in music videos posted on social media between 2016 and 2021 and rapped lyrics that mention “YSL” and/or various descriptions of criminal activity.

“These lyrics are no more than braggadocio rap lyrics,” Killer Mike said. “It is no more than Killer Mike saying I’m a killer on the mic.”

Prosecutors allege that YSL is responsible for three murders, including the 2015 killing of Donovan Thomas — an incident that they claimed “triggered” additional gang-related killings in the city.

Young Thug, a Grammy-winning rapper, is accused of various crimes, including theft and possession of illicit drugs with intent to distribute.

“Mr. Williams has committed no violation of law, whatsoever. We will fight this case ethically, legally and zealously. Mr. Williams will be cleared,” Young Thug’s attorney Brian Steel told ABC News.

“Mr. Sergio Kitchens, known as Gunna, is innocent. The indictment falsely portrays his music as part of criminal conspiracy,” the rapper’s attorneys, Steve Sadow and Don Samuel, told ABC News.

“It is intensely problematic that the State relies on song lyrics as part of its allegations. These lyrics are an artist’s creative expression and not a literal recounting of facts and circumstances,” the attorneys said in a court filing obtained by ABC News.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis defended including the lyrics in the indictment.

“The First Amendment does not protect people from prosecutors using [lyrics] as evidence,” she said at a May 10 press conference when asked about First Amendment concerns. “We put it as overt within the RICO count because we believe that’s exactly what it is.” ABC News has reached out to the DA’s office for further comment.

Nielson, a liberal arts professor at the University of Richmond, claims hip-hop music is the only genre that is targeted in courtrooms in this way.

“Rap music is the only fictional form — musical or otherwise, that is targeted this way in the courts,” Nielson said.

“It’s absolutely racist,” he added. “… essentially what’s happening is rap music is being denied the status of art.”

Killer Mike, who wrote the foreword to “Rap on Trial,” said that targeting Black art speaks to the dehumanization of Black people in America.

“Hip hop is not respected as an art because Black people in this country are not recognized as full human beings,” he said.

“… If we allow the courts to prosecute these men based on characters they created and stories of pretend that they tell in rhyme then next, they’ll be at your door.”

Young Thug and Gunna were both denied bond and their trials are set for January 2023.

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(NEW YORK) — Over a million pounds of baby formula is set to ship into the United States sometime next month, the Food and Drug Administration announced Friday.

Approximately 750,000 cans of Danone formula — equivalent to 1.3 million pounds of formula or roughly 19 million 8-ounce bottles — will be imported from the company’s facility in Ireland and is expected to be sold at major retailers in July.

The batch will be Aptamil First Infant Milk Stage 1, which is a formula for most healthy babies. The formula may not be suitable for infants who are born prematurely, those at risk for iron deficiencies or who have a low birth weight, the agency warned.

The import is part of the Biden administration’s ongoing “Operation Fly Formula” to address a nationwide shortage of baby formula that has left parents scrambling to find available stock in stores.

Vice President Kamala Harris greeted the latest shipment on Friday at Dulles International Airport in Virginia. The shipment included the equivalent of 200,000 8-ounce bottles of Kendamil formula flown by United Airlines from the United Kingdom.

“Let’s be clear, this really is about what should be one of the highest purposes for any one of us, which is to ensure that we are meeting the needs of our children, the children of our country,” Harris said in remarks delivered at the airport.

The administration, which faced criticism for its response to the shortage, invoked the Defense Production Act to ramp up domestic production and expanded access to baby formula for recipients of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (also known as WIC).

“There’s no doubt there’s more work to do,” Harris said, adding: “We have seen progress, but the work that we need to do is to continue to move the formula as quickly as possible and get it on the shelves.”

This weekend, three more flights carrying Kendamil infant formula will arrive at Dulles International Airport. Once it arrives, Kendamil products are transferred to Target and made available to their stores nationwide.

The FDA said by June 19, “Operation Fly Formula” flights will have brought nearly 13 million 8-ounce bottle equivalents of formula to the U.S.

As flights continue to arrive, production at Abbott Nutrition’s baby formula plant in Michigan has once again halted due to flooding in the area after severe storms.

Abbott’s plant was closed for nearly four months due to contamination concerns. The shuttering of the site and Abbott’s voluntary recall of products exacerbated the shortages.

FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said he’s been in contact with Abbott CEO Robert Ford and the two have a “shared desire to get the facility up and running again as quickly as possible.”

In a statement, Abbott said the latest shutdown “will likely delay production and distribution of new product for a few weeks.”

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(UVALDE, Texas) — A Uvalde police officer had the opportunity to shoot the gunman before he entered the school, but did not take the shot for fear of hitting children, according to an official briefed on the investigation. The officer was armed with a AR-15-style rifle.

The officer who arrived with a rifle only had seconds to make the decision and feared he would hit children with his weapon, according to the official. The account was first reported by the New York Times.

The decision is the second missed opportunity for officers who were responding to reports of a gunman outside Robb Elementary School.

A Uvalde school district police force officer had arrived on the scene while the gunman was still outside, but drove past him, not seeing him in the parking lot.

Additional details on the investigation into the Uvalde school shooting are expected to be released next week. Two teachers and 19 students were killed after a gunman walked into the school through an unlocked door and opened fire.

Officials revealed it took 77 minutes from the moment the gunman entered the school to the moment he was shot and killed by Border Patrol officers.

Police response to the shooting is currently being investigated by the Texas Rangers, the U.S. Department of Justice and a special committee of the Texas legislature.

ABC News’ Josh Margolin and Alyssa Pone contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Buffalo, New York, has one of the country’s largest Juneteenth celebrations outside of Texas, according to event organizers.

Each year on June 19, the community comes together to honor the day that enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned they were free, about 2 1/2 years after they were legally freed by the Emancipation Proclamation.

However, this year, the celebration of freedom in the U.S. means much more to this city.

Buffalo is grieving following a mass shooting by an alleged white supremacist at a Tops supermarket that left 10 Black people dead and another three people wounded on May 14.

Authorities have called the attack a racially motivated hate crime.

The alleged shooter ranted in a 180-page document detailing the racist motivations behind the mass shooting, saying that he targeted the area because of its predominantly Black population.

Jomo Akono, who helps organize the Juneteenth celebration, said the suspect drove past his house to get to the supermarket that day. In this tight-knit community, everyone felt the weight of the attack.

“Many of the people in our community have direct or one or two degrees of separation from someone who was injured or killed or inside of the facility — someone who survived being shot at,” said Akono. “They have the mental and emotional scars.”

This year, Buffalo residents are taking this moment of grief and heartache and using Juneteenth as a way to remind the world that racial injustice is not over in this country.

The weekend-long festival is being dedicated to all of the victims affected by the tragedy and their families, and there will be a place of silence near the festival for people to relax, reflect on the tragedy and honor the victims, organizers said.

The event organizers say there is a long way to go in the fight for racial justice — and Juneteenth is a chance to celebrate both how far the country has come and acknowledge how far it has to go.

“This will be a defining event that really displays our rich culture and history and shows that we are really a part of this American landscape in every which way imaginable,” said Jennifer Earle-Jones, president of Juneteenth Festival, Inc.’s board of directors.

The 47th Juneteenth Festival of Buffalo will aim to educate attendees about the past histories of the Black community in America — from slavery, to Jim Crow, to modern-day oppression via police brutality and systemic racism, according to organizers.

The recent mass shooting highlighted the growing threat of white supremacist violence in the U.S.

“Put May 14 as one of those traumatic forces against Black people here in America,” said Akono. “I feel optimistic that people are going to wake up and be more vigilant.”

He continued, “If everything was okay, why are we still fighting for voting rights? Why are we still talking about equal and respectful police protection?”

Though there will be plenty of discussion about ways to address racial injustice, organizers say they also want residents to revel in the love and joy of the community after years and months of facing such burdens.

“We want to be that communal place, where the village comes together again after the wolf is gone,” she added.

Event organizers say healing — not just in Buffalo, but the Black community as a whole — is a vital part of achieving racial justice. Residents need a break, they say, and the multigenerational love and community of the festival will satisfy that need.

Several generations of Buffalo residents will come together for a dayslong schedule of events including parades, parties, festivals and performances by local students, fraternities and sororities prepared just for this day.

“People have been crying for months and months,” Earle-Jones said. They want “people to come out and be able to laugh.”

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(NEW YORK) — For Ebon’Nae Bradley, helping expectant parents is more than a job – it’s her mission. Bradley has been a licensed doula for more than a decade and has supported hundreds of mothers in their journeys to give birth.

“I always like to describe it as like a birth planner for your birth,” said Bradley, who is based in Dallas, of her role in the birthing process. “We sit with you and we really help you to see what the vision is for your birth. We help you find your power.”

The Mayo Clinic defines a doula as a professional labor assistant who provides both physical and emotional support during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period.

Black doulas like Bradley are helping mothers reclaim their child birthing processes by empowering them to make decisions around their own health care.

“When women reach out to me, especially Black women, the No. 1 thing, without fail, is fear. They’re afraid,” Bradley told ABC’s Janai Norman.

She said she’s seen that some doctors worry about statistical risks and sometimes will dismiss a woman’s concerns rather than listen to them.

“Doctors in general, most of them kind of tend to look at birth as something they want to manage,” said Bradley. “Birth is not by the book.”

According to a 2013 study from the Journal of Perinatal Education, mothers who are “socially disadvantaged” were two times less likely to experience a birth complication while using a doula.

Dr. Joia Crear-Perry is a retired OB-GYN and leading specialist on maternal mortality among Black mothers. She said race, gender and socio-economic status matter during childbirth.

“We know that the consequences of racism, sexism, gender oppression are causing us to die within childbirth,” said Crear-Perry. “We have never invested in people who are the most marginalized. Our health care system was created to ensure that people who have resources are able to get things.”

Non-Hispanic, Black mothers are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than their white and Hispanic counterparts, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Bradley often partners with licensed midwives like Kennasha Jones and Tereé Fruga, who are medically trained to deliver babies in most settings, including the hospital, birthing centers, or in homes.

“Midwifery care is not just about caring for her body. We’re caring for the whole woman,” said Jones. “We want to know what your mental state is. We want to know what your emotions are like.”

A 2018 study found that states with more robust midwifery services reported better maternal care and better birthing outcomes, suggesting that states that have better resources dedicated to health care have better results, according to a study published in the journal PLOS One.

The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate when compared to other industrialized nations, some of which use midwives at much higher rates than in the U.S., according to The Commonwealth Fund. The World Health Organization recommends midwifery care as an evidence based approach to reducing these deaths.

Bradley, Jones and Fruga were recently providing collaborative care for Justina Arrington, a mother of two with a third child on the way, in Arlington, Texas.

Arrington said that her first birth was a “traumatic” experience for her. Her prenatal records showed that her baby started showing signs of fetal distress and doctors said she would need an emergency cesarean section.

“It was just it was real tiresome and it was very traumatic, especially when I found out my doctor, that I had been working with the entire time, he was not going to be there,” said Arrington, who said she opted to undergo another C-section for her second pregnancy after her doctors warned she could be in labor for days.

In 2020, the CDC reported that about 1 out of every 3 deliveries in the United States were C-sections.

Arrington said that recovery from her two C-sections was painful. She said when she found out she was pregnant for a third time, she and her husband were determined to have a vaginal birth at home.

According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, planned home birth is associated with more than two times increased risk of perinatal death and three times increased risk of seizures or serious neurological dysfunction in newborns. Only 1 percent of women in the U.S. opt to give birth at home.

But advocates like the Midwives Alliance of North America say these statistics are too generalized and do not take into account the option for midwifery or a doula in the home or the outcomes for low risk pregnancies.

Arrington was at higher risk than most. Medical organizations recommend a hospital setting for vaginal birth after C-sections, instead of at home, to allow for quick access to emergency medical care if it’s needed.

Fruga says her organization tries to take as many precautions as possible to ensure a healthy delivery.

“First thing we do is we have to get the previous records from her C-sections. We have to make sure that the surgery was done in a manner that is safe for her to try an out-of-hospital birth. And once we do that, then we go about preparing her prenatal,” said Fruga, who also makes sure that the patient is close to a hospital in the event more medical care is needed.

With the help of Fruga, Bradley and Jones, after six and a half hours in labor, in a birth pool in her home, Arrington successfully gave birth to a healthy baby girl.

“Just to be able to find a team that was willing to take me on, that was willing to give me all the information that I needed, it’s a big relief and it’s just a big feeling of like, ‘Wow, I did it,’” said Arrington. “Just knowing that I was able to have her naturally it just feels different, you know?”

Often doula care can become pricey. Only six states currently provide Medicaid reimbursement for doula services and several more states have recently passed legislation or are considering adding doula coverage to Medicaid programs, according to the National Health Law Program.

But licensed midwifery care is often more covered by insurers. ABC News reached out to three of some of the largest insurance carriers here in the U.S: United Healthcare, Cigna and Aetna. All offer some coverage for certified midwifery care.

Crear-Perry said the investment is worth it.

“We’re all deserving of justice and joy. So if we invested in health as a right, we would have nobody in this country that doesn’t have access to whatever kind of birth that they want,” said Crear-Perry.

In the meantime, Bradley said her practice has been compelled to offer alternative payment methods like scholarships to help extend access to care. While some of her colleagues, she said, will get creative with how they’re compensated.

“Another thing that some doulas do is barter. So you have moms who are incredibly talented and resourceful. They may be photographers; they may be hairstylists. And it’s like, ‘Well, okay, I’ll braid your hair for a few months in exchange for my doula care,’” said Bradley.

Bradley says she is seeing more and more women who are informed and empowered to speak up and seek help.

“We’re here on the ground doing the work, helping,” she said. “What we see is healthy birth outcomes. We see healthy mamas, healthy babies and all because they had doula support, midwifery care and just love.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro entered a plea of not guilty Friday to two charges stemming from his failure to comply with subpoenas from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta set a tentative trial date for November 17.

Navarro was represented by his new defense attorneys, John Irving and John Rowley, who were retained by Navarro as counsel on Thursday. Navarro was previously pro se and representing himself.

Mehta rejected the defense’s request to delay the trial date until early 2023 to accommodate Navarro’s new book on former President Donald Trump, and his planned publicity tours.

“The latter part of the year is going to be … a time where [Navarro’s] going to be on the road a lot and trying to promote that book, which is important to him in terms of income and whatnot,” Irving said. “So it’s not a trivial thing.”

“No, I’m not suggesting it is,” Mehta replied. “On the other hand … I’ve got also the public interest [to take] into account in terms of moving this case forward.”

A federal prosecutor said during the arraignment that “delaying this trial to early next year, potentially April, would be clearly unwarranted given the facts and issues in this case,” and argued that a book tour does not justify such a delay.

The House voted in April to hold Navarro in contempt over his refusal to cooperate with the Jan. 6 probe.

Earlier this month, Navarro failed to comply with a federal grand jury subpoena calling for him to appear at U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

Navarro was indicted on June 3 on charges of contempt of Congress. The Justice Department previously returned a similar indictment against former White House strategist Steve Bannon after the House voted to hold him in contempt last year.

According to court documents, Navarro dropped a civil lawsuit he had filed last month against the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., and other parties, after he had received a grand jury subpoena related to the House’s contempt referral. However Rowley, speaking to reporters following Friday’s hearing, said his team might review the lawsuit and refile it after additional consideration.

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(NEW YORK) — Last week, several thousand migrants reportedly walked through southern Mexico on the way to the United States in the largest migrant caravan of the year. Officials said they have disbanded the group in the past few days, but many may still be traveling in smaller groups.

In the past, many migrants would hope to get to the United States and claim asylum. In the last couple of years, however, multiple policies have tightened the border. These include the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols or MPP, which forces people seeking asylum to return to Mexico while awaiting their court dates.

Further, during the pandemic, Title 42 imposed travel restrictions and those seeking asylum were turned away at the border.

In May, there were nearly 240,000 unauthorized southern border crossings, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection – which is a two-decade high and a 30% increase from the same time last year.

In a response to the influx of illegal crossings, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott launched Operation Lone Star last year he said combat crime along the Texas-Mexico border and capture more immigrants trying to enter the United States. The law enforcement operation is to use “available resources to enforce all applicable federal and state laws to prevent the criminal activity along the border.”

According to an April 2022 Texas state report, Operation Lone Star touted more than 13,600 criminal arrests and more than 11,000 felony charges as well as over 3,700 weapons seizures.

“Texans demand and deserve an aggressive, comprehensive border security strategy that will protect our communities from the dangerous consequences related to illegal immigration,” said Abbott in a statement. “Until President Biden enforces the immigration laws passed by Congress, Texas will step up and use its own strategies to secure the border and negotiate with Mexico to seek solutions that will keep Texans safe.”

ABC News correspondent Mireya Villareal spoke to ABC News’ “Start Here” podcast about Operation Lone Star.

“[Abbott] decided to put National Guardsmen, Texas Guardsmen on the border, along with the increase of DPS troopers he already had patrolling the area who are helping local law enforcement,” said Villareal. “So we’re talking about roughly 10,000 soldiers that are now along the border with Operation Lone Star, but there is a lot of confusion about really what their duties are, what sort of arresting power they really have, and really what laws they are enforcing down there.”

Due to the way state laws are enforced by Operation Lone Star, immigration advocates said that migrants are being arrested on state trespassing charges and are treated like criminals before they’ve even been given the chance to seek asylum through federal policy, according to Villareal.

“The migrants that are coming across from Mexico believe the people they are running into are actual federal agents enforcing immigration policy,” said Villareal. “So they stop because they think they are turning themselves in and they will be given the ability to ask for asylum. However, that is not what happens when they run into either guardsmen or DPS troopers inevitably.”

She said this is why the state detention centers are overcrowded.

“The detention centers that are being used by the state of Texas are prisons that are meant for everyday criminals. And so the frustration we’re seeing and the reason why immigration advocates are being really loud about Operation Lone Star is because you are treating them like they are criminals,” said Villareal. “You have a migrant that has come to the U.S. begging for help, wanting to ask for asylum and being told they cannot.” Villareal calls it a “loophole” of a situation.

“This is where there is that very fuzzy line between what the state’s rights are and what laws they can enforce and what federal rights are and what laws they can enforce, what powers they have,” said Villareal. “I think that’s what immigration advocates are trying to fight here in trying to figure out is, does the state of Texas truly have the right to do this?”

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(NEW YORK) — When Houston natives Kelley Dixon Tealer and her mother Alva Marie Jenkins embarked on the journey to discover their ancestral roots, they had no idea they would soon realize a dream that was more than 150 years in the making.

The quest to discover one’s family lineage can sometimes be difficult for some Black people throughout the African Diaspora due to the historical complications brought about by slavery. Finding records can be a daunting task.

Tealer says she spent most of her life not knowing the full extent of her family’s history, but the passing of an elder loved one inspired her to start a search through Ancestry, a Utah-based genealogy company that says it has helped millions of people discover their roots.

“I wanted to stay close to my grandparents and when they both transitioned, I just wanted to keep that piece of history. I wanted to dig more,” Tealer told “Good Morning America.”

It was then that Tealer connected with Dr. Nicka Sewell-Smith, an Ancestry genealogist who discovered through the Freedmen’s Bureau records that Jenkins and Tealer were second and third-generation granddaughters of Hawkins Wilson, a man who was born into slavery in Virginia, and separated from his family when he was sold as a boy.

The lost letters of Hawkins Wilson:

The Freedmen’s Bureau records are a collection of records compiled by Congress following the Civil War to “help formerly enslaved people make the transition from slavery to freedom and citizenship,” according to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

After the war ended in 1865, the Freedmen’s Bureau was tasked with trying to reconnect families who were separated during slavery and transitioning formerly enslaved people into the workforce.

Twenty-four years after being separated from his family, Wilson, living as a free man in Galveston, Texas, sent letters to the Freedman’s Bureau seeking assistance to find his siblings.

“Dear sir, I am anxious to learn about my sisters, from whom I have been separated for many years,” Wilson wrote to the Freedman’s Bureau chief in a letter delivered to the agency on May 11, 1867.

“I have never heard from them since I left Virginia twenty-four years ago. I am in hopes that they are still living and I am anxious to hear how they are getting on,” the letter read.

Wilson sent several letters for his family to the bureau, hoping to reconnect, but they were ultimately sent to the wrong county and never made it to his relatives.

National Archive records show that Hawkins wrote to his sister Jane, hoping to hear back.

“Dear Sister Jane, your little brother Hawkins is trying to find out where you are and where his poor old mother is. Let me know and I will come to you,” he wrote. “I should never forget the bag of biscuits you made for me the last night I spent with you. Your advice to me to meet you in heaven has never passed from my mind. And I have endeavored to live as near to my God so that if he saw fit not to suffer us to meet on earth, we might indeed meet in heaven.”

Wilson also detailed his life in Galveston as a free working man, a husband, and a Christian.

”I’m writing to you tonight, my dear sister, with my bible in my hand, praying almighty God to bless you, and preserve you and me to meet again,” he wrote.

An Emotional Reunion:

It is unknown if Wilson was ever able to reunite his family, but Sewell-Smith was able to use the names mentioned in his letters, in addition to other historical records and Freedman’s Bureau documents, to connect Tealer and Jenkins, his descendants.

“What the Freedman’s Bureau does is it helps us scale the wall or in essence, blow the wall up because it really peers into a very specific period right after enslavement, where these individuals were walking into their economy, their lives, how they wanted to be referred to in terms of their names, and who they wanted to work for,” Sewell-Smith told “Good Morning America.” “And Hawkins was just enough of a cookie crumb for us to be able to connect him back to the ancestors and the family that he had been ripped apart from.”

Wilson’s words are the focal point in a new documentary by Ancestry titled “A Dream Delivered: The Lost Letters of Hawkins Wilson,” in which Tealer and Jenkins embark on the journey of reconnecting with other Wilson’s descendants.

“Now is the time. This is the time for his story to be shared,” Jenkins told “Good Morning America.”

Tealer and Jenkins were able to find and meet their sixth cousins, Valerie Gray Holmes and Linda Epps Parks, the descendants of Wilson’s Uncle Jim.

Epps Parker said she was overcome with emotion when the relatives met for the first time during the documentary’s filming, in April 2021.

“I felt like I had known Kelley and her mom all my life. I felt connected to them. It just was genuine,” she told “Good Morning America.”

Tealer told ABC News correspondent Kenneth Moton that she thinks of Wilson’s sister Jane often and hopes to one day find Jane’s descendants.

She told Moton, tearfully, that if she had the chance, she would tell Jane, “I found your brother, Hawkins. Can I read you his letters? Tell me about your journey. What have you been doing in these past 24 years?”

More than 150 years after Wilson sent his letters, Epps Parker said her ancestor finally achieved his dream to reunite his family.

“You can rest because your letter has been delivered,” Epps Parker said, addressing Wilson. “We are taking the baton and passing it on to other family members.”

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