by Neesha Powell-Ingabire This article was originally published at Prism I’ll never forget where I was when the first plane hit the World Trade Center: in a classroom at my high school in Brunswick, Georgia, a few feet away from a redheaded boy named Travis McMichael. Our paths rarely crossed outside of Spanish class. I was a bookish Black cheerleader, and he was a white boy who donned camouflage and shirts emblazoned with the Confederate flag. I never imagined that 20 years later, McMichael would be the defendant at an unforgettable trial alongside his father, Greg, and neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan. On the afternoon of Nov. 24, I woke up from a nap to a phone notification reporting that McMichael had been found guilty on all nine counts for murdering 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who went to school with my little brother. His two accomplices were found guilty of nearly all their charges. I immediately took to social media to celebrate this historic moment happening in my hometown, but my mood was tempered when I remembered the verdict is a small step toward the racial justice Brunswick-Glynn County desperately needs. The McMichaels and Bryan have yet to stand trial for their federal hate crime charges, and Jackie Johnson, the recently indicted former district attorney who chose not to arrest the men for more than two months, still hasn’t been brought to justice. Furthermore, Black folks there are still in danger of being harassed and assaulted for merely existing. Read more