Four years ago, Wanda Cooper-Jones’ life changed forever. Her son Ahmaud Arbery, 25, had gone out for a run in their quiet South Georgia town — only this time he didn’t come home.
She couldn’t have known that soon people would be chanting her son’s name in the streets or the pivotal role she would play in honoring his legacy. On that Sunday in February of 2020, she was just a mother whose son had gone out for a run.
However, as video and a lengthy trial would later show, Arbery was hunted down, kidnapped, and killed by three white men — Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael, and William Bryan.
The Root sat down with Cooper-Jones after the release of a new documentary series from Adidas, “Create with Purpose,” featuring Cooper-Jones, an Adidas Honoring Black Excellence honoree, and other influential Black women honorees. She opened-up about pushing through her grief to found the Ahmaud Arbery Foundation and whether she thinks this country has changed since her son’s death.
“I lost Ahmaud in February,” recalls Cooper-Jones. “It was 74 days and 73 nights that I went without any type of arrest.”
But then, things did shift. Video of what happened to her son shocked the national conscience and helped to spark a movement in the Summer of 2020. Her son’s killers were ultimately arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to life and 35 years in prison respectively.
“I’m really grateful that the things that happened chose the year 2020,” reflected Cooper-Jones. “And the year of the pandemic because people were confined to their homes and they were paying attention.”
Cooper-Jones said that at least in Georgia, she thinks things have shifted since Arbery’s murder.
“In the state of Georgia, we’ve gotten the Citizen’s Arrest law repealed, and we implemented the hate crime laws,” says Cooper-Jones, who played a pivotal role in the passage of both laws. “So in Georgia, we’ve had change since 2020.”
But healing isn’t linear.
Cooper-Jones admits that even with the success of her foundation and the work she’s done to change the system that led to her son’s death — sometimes she feels numb with grief.
“Prayers have gotten me this far,” she says truthfully. “Not just my prayers but the prayers from everyone around me.”
Her relationships with other mothers who’ve faced similar trauma has also been a salve. “Trayvon’s mama, Sabrina Fulton, early on she reached out with her condolences,” she says. “I gained strength from her. It was very, very powerful to have someone in my corner that was going through the same kind of grief that I was going through.”
Breonna Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, has been another source of comfort for Cooper-Jones. “We lost our babies around the same time,” she says. “It was like a connection all at once.”
Being able to keep her son’s legacy alive through the Ahmaud Arbery Foundation, which supports safe physical activity and mental health resources for Black boys, has been another avenue to manage her grief.
“It’s healing to know that something that was established in Ahmaud’s name is actually helping Black boys that look like him,” she says. “It’s healing for me. It does my body good.”