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Wanda Cooper-Jones, mother of Ahmaud Arbery, announced an $18,000 scholarship will be awarded to students from Arbery’s former Georgia high school. The announcement was made at the Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia on Wednesday the 23rd, which was declared Ahmaud Arbery Day in Georgia.

Arbery was murdered while jogging in Brunswick, Georgia in 2020. His killers, Gregory and Travis McMichael and William “Roddy” Bryan were convicted with murder and federal hate crimes earlier this week, ensuring that they’ll spend life in prison.

Cooper-Jones however, has decided to remember her son in a different light. Arbery was an exceptional student-athlete at Brunswick High School, so Cooper-Jones is awarding six students from the high school with $3,000 scholarships in memory of Arbery. The scholarships will be awarded on May 8th, which would have been Arbery’s 28th birthday.

“Laws changing is just the beginning,” said Cooper-Jones on Wednesday. “Next we must change the minds and the perception of Black men in this country.”

Arbery was chased by the McMichaels and Bryan in pickup trucks as he was jogging near a subdivision not far from his home. He was cornered and shot. The McMichaels and Bryan claimed that they were making a citizen’s arrest, suspecting Arbery of a crime.

The claim fell apart at the murder trials, and at the hate crime trials, it was revealed that the three men often used racist language referring to Black people for years before the murder of Arbery.