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Some of the bravest battles are not fought with swords, but with words.

That was the case for editor, author and historian Stanley Nelson, who passed away on Thursday morning and whose pen was sharper than many swords.

As New York Times best-selling author Greg Iles once wrote, Nelson was “a humble hero” in every sense.

He risked his own life to unravel the cold case murders of the Ku Klux Klan.

Boldly and bravely, he used his writings to right past wrongs, even wrongs committed by editors of long ago.

His phenomenal reporting spills over into his two published books, “Devils Walking: Ku Klux Klan Murders Along the Mississippi River in the 1960s” (2016) and “Klan of Devils: The Murder of a Black Louisiana Deputy Sheriff” (2021).

As a Ferriday-native who ran the local newspaper for decades, the level to which he took his work is truly an inspiration to fellow journalists, earning national recognition in both writings and on television with a PBS Frontline documentary.

While being recognized with the 2023 Historic Preservation Award from the Natchez Historical Society, Nelson said, “To understand who we are, we need to know who we were.”

Understanding is something Nelson strived for. After his retirement from the newspaper in December 2021, Nelson would go on speaking and educating others on history topics.

Where others had given up on unearthing the truth, Nelson never did.

The community has lost a great hero in Stanley Nelson. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends and our neighboring journalists at the Concordia Sentinel.

With his written words, he leaves behind a legacy we feel will be remembered by generations to come.