‘Indescribable, monumental’: Parents praised for actions after a racist murdered their son

Five years after their Black son was stabbed to death by a member of the "Alt-Reich Nation" Facebook group, a Maryland couple has found remarkable success trying to heal racial divisions.

In May of 2017, Richard Collins III, 23, was stabbed to death on the University of Maryland campus. Collins was visiting friends only days before he was to graduate from Bowie State University and had just received his commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.

His parents, Dawn and Richard Collins, Jr., have been busy since according to a new report by People magazine.

Sean Urbanski, 22, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole, but the judge threw out the hate crimes conviction.

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So the couple began working to change the law.

"In March 2020, with bipartisan support, the state legislature enacted the Second Lt. Richard Collins III Law, making a hate crime one 'motivated in whole or in substantial part' by a victim's race, religion or sexual orientation," the magazine reported.

Dawn Collins explained, "I knew I could stay home and cry or be a catalyst for change."

The couple launched the 2LT Richard W. Collins III Foundation, which gives $1 million in scholarships that gives $1 million to ROTC cadets at historically Black colleges and universities and has a mentorship program for its scholars.

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The foundation launched the University of Maryland – Bowie State Social Justice Alliance and has a "unique partnership" with Outward Bound that connects cads from Bowie State University and the University of Maryland, College Park.

Rashawn Ray, PhD, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, co-directs the Social Justice Alliance.

"I think the work that they're doing is indescribable, monumental," Ray said. "They were able to, in light of the tragedy of their son being murdered, to have the wherewithal to want to try to heal a racial divide in our county and in our state."

After the opening of the Lt. Richard Collins III Plaza at the University of Maryland in May, the couple reflected on their journey on the foundation's Facebook page.

"As we take time to reflect on the years that have slowly melted away, we’ve experienced many mixed emotions that are multi-faceted prisms that offer a brief glimpse into the reality that we must live through daily. Happiness from all who have benefited from the various scholarships in Lt. Collins’ name; to joy about the laws that have been changed to ensure no one else suffers the same fate. But it also serves as a painful reminder of what was lost to achieve those goals," they wrote. "All these emotions, it seems at times, helps to ground us, and keep us focused on the task at hand."