Oprah Winfrey is putting her money where her mouth is. After stepping off the cover of her magazine, O, The Oprah Magazine, for the first time in 20 years to feature the late Breonna Taylor, the 66-year-old media mogul has now paid for dozens of billboards to be erected around Louisville, Kentucky, where Taylor was killed by policemen in her home in March.
According to Variety and local station WLKY, Winfrey and the O magazine team purchased the billboards in an effort to amplify Taylor’s story and to seek justice for her death.
Taylor was a 26-year-old EMT who was killed on March 13 in her home in Louisville, Kentucky, by Louisville Metro Police. She and boyfriend Kenneth Walker were in their own home when police made a late-night raid on the wrong address, looking for someone who had been taken into police custody hours earlier. Taylor was shot eight times. Though one officer was fired months after the incident, none of the officers involved have been arrested or charged.
The billboards feature the same image of Taylor on a yellow backdrop as her magazine cover with the words, “Demand that the police involved in killing Breonna Taylor be arrested and charged. Visit untilfreedom.com.” They also feature a quote from Winfrey, saying, “If you turn a blind eye to racism, you become an accomplice to it.”
Oprah erecting 26 billboards of Breonna Taylor around Louisville https://t.co/zyQqnm2rxY
— WLKY (@WLKY) August 7, 2020
In her column for the magazine, which hits stands Aug. 11, Winfrey writes, “What I know for sure: We can’t be silent. We have to use whatever megaphone we have to cry for justice. And that is why Breonna Taylor is on the cover of O magazine.”
O magazine encourages its readers to sign the Change.Org and Color of Change petitions to demand justice from Kentucky officials. It also urges people to call Kentucky’s attorney general, mayor, governor, and the public integrity unit of the Louisville Metro Police Department to demand the officers involved in Breonna’s death are fired and charged with her killing. Those looking for more information can visit StandWithBre.com. O also encourages people to donate to the Louisville Community Bail Fund to help protesters fighting in Breonna’s name and to continue to use the hashtag #SayHerName to keep her memory alive.
