ABOUT

“As a Black man and an American citizen, I believe it is my duty to further the fight for social justice and help make strides in ending systemic and cultural racism. It is because of this belief that I founded the R Wood Family Foundation. I want to use the Ray Wood Story platform to help bring awareness to the need for police reform, especially as it relates to the unfair treatment and killing of our black and brown people. My cousin Ray Wood joined the police force with the hope of providing the Black and Brown community an ally on the right side of justice, but because of the barriers that Black people continuously face when trying to succeed, he instead succumbed to the pressure and became a pawn of the NYPD and FBI. It is impossible for a rotten tree to bear fresh fruit and the best way to change the system is to plant new seeds. I am not naive to the fact that police reform has been a difficult challenge for many civil rights organizations and activists. I believe that the solution will not be reached by trying to change the powers that be. That is why I have established the Ray Wood scholarship for criminal justice. This scholarship will provide funding to students that live in the underserved communities that are directly affected by police corruption and brutality. I will also champion the push for the FBI to release the thousands of files un-redacted on the surveillance, incarceration, and murder of many of our Black leaders, including Malcolm X.”