Georgia Marks ‘Ahmaud Arbery Day’ Statewide to Honor Killed Runner: NPR
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Starting today, the state of Georgia will recognize February 23 of each year as Ahmaud Arbery Day, for the black runner who was chased and killed on a residential street near Brunswick exactly two years ago.
Georgia House of Representatives passed a solution Earlier this month honored Arbery and urged people to run the annual 2.23 miles to campaign for racial equality.
Both Arbery’s parents – Wanda Cooper-Jones and Marcus Arbery – are scheduled to appear at events in Georgia on Wednesday. Other remembrance plans include a vigil in the Satilla Shores neighborhood where Arbery was murdered and a candlelit march.
Arbery’s death anniversary this year comes a day after his three convicted killers, who were white, were found guilty in a federal hate crime trial target Arbery because of his race.
In a separate trial in Georgia state court last year, Travis McMichael, his father, Greg McMichael, and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan were found guilty of Arbery’s murder. They chased him with a pickup truck, and Travis McMichael killed him with a shotgun.
All three men sentenced to life in prison in that case.
Georgia Representative Sandra Scott, who sponsored the resolution that created Ahmaud Arbery Day, said the resolution also noted that Arbery’s death led to the repeal of the state’s arrest of citizens law and the passage of hate crime legislation. new hate.
“We finally got the justice we’ve been waiting for a very long time,” Scott told WABE following Tuesday’s guilty verdict.
A version of this story originally appeared in Morning Edition’s live blog.