Attorney Mawuli Davis has one simple request for the Black community to do during the trial over the killing of Ahmaud Arbery.
“What we can’t afford to do this time is not to be present when they’re deliberating and the juries are meeting,” Davis told rolling out. “We’ve got to be there. We’ve got to be engaged.”
The jury selection process is still ongoing in Brunswick, Georgia, as the court seeks qualified and unbiased jurors in the high-profile case. In February 2020, two white men, Travis and Gregory McMichael, chased down and killed Arbery, an unarmed 25-year-old Black man, as he went on his routine run. A third white man, William “Roddie” Bryan, has also been charged, as he used his car to block in Arbery and filmed the killing.
None of the aforementioned men were even arrested until a local radio station received the footage of Arbery being killed in May 2020.
“It’s going to be a fight,” Davis said. “Justice is never easy in America for Black people, but that’s why we got to do the work.”
Davis reaffirms the Black community must do its part in ensuring justice for Arbery despite how difficult selecting the jury process is.
“Yes, we say power to the people we mean that and powers in our presence,” Davis said. “When we’re absent, justice is usually absent. When we’re present, we have a way of bringing that forward, and we got to be there.”
The conception of being present for Black liberation goes hand-in-hand with Davis’ “WE NEED YOU!” book. The attorney hosted an album listening party for a hip-hop adaptation of the book in Atlanta on Oct. 26 to appeal to the younger generation.
Please go to the next page to see a video of Arbery’s father, Marcus Arbery, embrace a group of Black people outside of the courthouse in Brunswick, Georgia to thank them for their support.
