Five years later, the Arbery family strives to keep Ahmaud’s name alive.

Five years ago, Brunswick was in the nation’s spotlight for the murder of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery. The community continues to ensure that his memory remains visible.

On Sunday, Feb. 23. 2025, dozens congregated at the annual commemoration of Ahmaud Arbery’s life at the park named after the Black man who was killed in 2020 while jogging in a majority white neighborhood.

“Let’s pull together, let’s stop looking at white and Black. I’m gonna start loving people. Because if those three men would’ve loved my boy, he would’ve still been here alive today,” said Marcus Arbery, Ahmaud Arbery’s father.

Pirate pride

An array of blue and yellow balloons spanned across the park, the colors honoring Arbery as an alumnus of Brunswick High – a detail that the former high school football star took pride in.

Attendees shared plates and gathered amongst each other recalling Arbery’s life or listening in to his family’s remembrances.  

Diane Jackson, Ahmaud’s aunt, organized the event. She said that everything fell into place, insisting that the coordination was a community effort.

She said Ahmaud always would be the only one ready for church on Sundays when she would go to pick the family up. The last family visit to church holds a distinctive place in her memory. 

“He said, I’m praying for my pop, my mom, my sister, my auntie, my uncles, and that was the last time we spoke in church. That’s about two weeks before he got killed. And still, you can’t believe it happened,” she recalled. “Can’t believe it happened right here in Brunswick, a little old place. I thought everybody knew each other in Brunswick, and you wouldn’t kill somebody’s kid. But, it happened.”

‘Still a lot to be done’

Marie Jordan, 50, came out to the event to support the Arbery family, who she says are her in-laws. 

She emphasized the importance of the community standing together. Adding that having a united front to show for the family is crucial because otherwise, the message would be that they are not being heard.

“The whole thing with Ahmaud with the two guys, it’s still a lot to be done because they’re constantly trying to appeal,” she said. 

Father and son, Gregory and Travis McMichael murdered Arbery as he ran past their home in the Satilla Shores neighborhood. They chased him and shot him claiming that he was attempting to burglarize a home there. 

Wiliam “Roddie” Bryan, a fellow resident of Satilla Shores, joined in on the chase and filmed the murder.

The Arbery family waited 73 days for an arrest.

The three white men were sentenced to life in state court for the murder. The McMichaels received additional life sentences in federal court for hate crimes, and Bryan was sentenced to 35 years. 

The trio most recently filed motions to appeal the federal convictions in October 2024. 

“We gonna keep this going, long as I’m alive, Ahmaud gonna live on, Ahmaud gonna be remembered and when I’m gone, my children gonna take over and keep his name alive. I got enough family fun to keep it going,” said Marcus Arbery, maintaining that the “Arbery family is not going nowhere.”