Oprah Winfrey says Breonna Taylor billboards organized in Louisville are her ‘form of protest’

Oprah Winfrey is having dozens of billboards installed around Louisville calling for justice...
Oprah Winfrey is having dozens of billboards installed around Louisville calling for justice for Breonna Taylor.(WAVE 3 News)
Updated: Aug. 11, 2020 at 3:07 PM EDT
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Oprah Winfrey released a video on the 150th day since Breonna Taylor’s death, speaking on her reason for placing 26 billboards featuring Taylor’s image across the streets of Louisville.

Breonna Taylor became the first person other than Winfrey to grace the cover of the media icon’s O Magazine. The cover featured Taylor’s image, date of birth and death, and a quote from Oprah that reads “If you turn a blind eye to racism, you become an accomplice to it.”

In a video posted on Winfrey’s twitter account Monday, she speaks over images of the billboards featuring Taylor’s image being placed up in Louisville.

Winfrey said that the last time she talked to Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, she was having a rough time dealing with the loss of her daughter.

“She told me, ‘I can’t stop seeing her face, her smile. It’s what I miss most about her. I’m still waiting for her to come through the door,‘” Winfrey said.

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Taylor was shot and killed at her home March 13 by LMPD plainclothes officers serving a “no-knock warrant” relating to a drug-trafficking investigation.

Officers broke down Taylor’s door using a battering ram, which caused Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker to fire a warning shot in response.

A bullet hit one of the officers, Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in the thigh, causing Mattingly and the two other officers serving the warrant, Brett Hankison and Myles Cosgrove to return fire.

Taylor was shot five times in the midst of gunfire and later died.

The investigation into the death of Breonna Taylor was taken over by Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron back in May. Cameron has continued to urge for patience as the investigation remains ongoing. On August 7, Cameron’s office revealed that it is waiting on results from ballistics and other tests concerning the case investigation.

Winfrey said that if not for the coronavirus, she would be out protesting in the streets in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and calling for justice in the investigation of Breonna Taylor’s death.

“These 26 billboards, one for every year of Breonna’s life, are my offering - my form of protest,” Winfrey said in the video. ‘We cannot be silent. We have to use whatever megaphone we have to cry for justice.”

The billboards were installed last week, calling for the officers involved in the death of Breonna Taylor to be arrested and charged. They also provide a link to the website for Until Freedom, the national activist group that has relocated to Louisville. Until Freedom led the protest back on July 14 gathering outside of the house of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron.

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