‘I Promised I’d Find the Truth’ — Ahmaud Arbery’s Mother Wanda Cooper-Jones On Justice, Legacy And Creating A World Where Black Boys Run Without Fear [Exclusive]
Courtesy of Pitch Blend
Before 2020, Wanda Cooper-Jones was a mother of three from coastal Georgia, living a quiet life shaped by faith, family, and community. Then, on February 23 of that year, 25-year-old Ahmaud “Maud” Arbery went out for a jog and never returned home.
The world came to learn the story: Ahmaud was pursued, cornered, and murdered on a quiet street in a racially motivated attack that echoed the darkest chapters of American history. Before his name became synonymous with a national uprising against racist violence, he was simply Wanda’s son—a vibrant, athletic, loving young man who ran because it made him feel free.
The violence that took Ahmaud’s life could’ve broken his mother, but Wanda refused to let the truth be buried along with her child.
The day that she laid him to rest is when she promised she would find out what happened.
Wanda remembers that day with striking clarity. The world had no idea what happened in Satilla Shores; the case had not yet gone viral. For months, officials stalled, deflected, and attempted to distort the truth. Wanda’s response was simple: she fought. She kept asking questions. She refused to be dismissed. She refused silence.
“When we lost Ahmad back in 2020,” she told MadameNoire in a recent interview, “immediately after we lost him, the state of Georgia [made] some incredible changes in legislation. Georgia did not have a hate crime law, and also, they repealed the citizens’ arrest law here in Georgia, which was a law they used back in slavery forever ago.”
Those changes, she said, were the start. Yet, they weren’t enough.
“After those changes came, I wanted to create something involving Ahmad’s legacy as far as change. And I wanted the change to be in my community, your community, and for little boys who may have some challenges when it comes to mental health.”
With that commitment, The Ahmaud Arbery Foundation was born.
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