BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Wednesday marked the second anniversary of the day that Ahmaud Arbery was killed in a Georgia coastal neighborhood.
The anniversary comes a day after the men who killed him were found guilty of federal hate crimes against Arbery.
Life celebrations honoring his life were held across Georgia on Wednesday.
In Brunswick, Georgia, a park was named after Arbery. Channel 2’s Tony Thomas spoke to Arbery’s family earlier in the day as they walked to the spot where Ahmaud was killed.
The family released doves over the spot to symbolize Arbery’s spirit.
“When you released that pigeon, what went through your mind?” Thomas asked Arbery’s father, Marcus Arbery Sr.
“Thinking of him, thinking of his spirit still flying full through the world and letting the world see he’s a love child,” said Arbery Sr.
Arbery was killed while going for a jog and running through the Satilla Shores neighborhood. Then three men tracked him down, shot him, and accused Arbery of being a criminal.
“That driveway right here behind you — last time I was here, (it) was stained with his blood,” Barbara Arnwine of the Transformative Justice Coalition told Thomas.
Arbery’s murder sparked a nationwide conversation, forced changes in state law and led to the three men’s murder and hate crime convictions.
Wednesday was a day of prayers of support, but there was also a nod to work still to be done.
Porsche Miller led protests outside the Glynn County Courthouse during the murder trial. She traveled to Brunswick from Atlanta on Wednesday to support the Arbery family.
“Hard getting out of here today?” Thomas asked Miller.
“Yeah. Lots of chills, lots of pain,” Miller said.
“This was an American tragedy and I think Georgia is sending a message, that’s how you respond when the entire state comes together,” family attorney Gerald Griggs said.
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“I will never recover. It’s a hurtful thing. I’m going to die with it because he lost his life,” said Arbery’s aunt, Diane Jackson.
Friends and family also held a march through the neighborhood to honor Arbery.
Another march through the Satilla Shores neighborhood is scheduled for next year.
Back in Cobb County, about 100 people gathered in Marietta Square to celebrate Arbery’s life.
Now that all of the court hearings in this case have concluded, activists say it’s time to change some people’s mindsets.
“We gather not to mourn the death of Ahmaud, but to celebrate his life,” Cobb County District Attorney Flynn Broady told the crowd in the plaza.
By his side was Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper Jones.
“On February 2, 2022, the Georgia House of Representatives passed House Resolution 688 recognizing today, February 23, as Ahmaud Arbery Day,” Broady said.
The prosecutor and other elected officials on stage told Channel 2’s Tyisha Fernandes they are now looking for change in the hope that no one will believe they can ever take anyone’s life in the way Ahmaud’s life was stolen.
“We are here to find a way forward in the hope that we can rid our communities, our state, our nation of the hatred, division and intolerance that has led these men to challenge the legitimacy of their… believing actions,” Broady said.
Earlier in the day, Cooper Jones attended another celebration in downtown Atlanta at the Center for Civil and Human Rights.
“Today is something very special. It’s very hard today, to be honest. It’s very hard. I thought every year would get better, but unfortunately every year every year gets a little bit more difficult,” Cooper Jones told Fernandes. “I just want to thank the state of Georgia, the community of Brunswick, everyone who actually stood by my family and I to get justice for Ahmaud.”
Cooper Jones also spoke about the establishment of the Ahmaud Arbery Foundation, which will be based in Atlanta.
It is a foundation that provides scholarships and other funds to young black men to help them go where Ahmaud was destined before his life ended.
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