Oprah Is Putting Up 26 Billboards For Breonna Taylor In Louisville

The 26 billboards (one for every year of Taylor’s life) will demand that the Louisville officers involved in her death be arrested and charged.

A billboard sponsored by O, The Oprah Magazine, is on display with a photo of Breonna Taylor, Friday, Aug. 7, 2020 in Louisville, KY. Twenty-six billboards are going up across Louisville, demanding that the police officers involved in Taylor's death be arrested and charged. Taylor was shot multiple times March 13 when police officers burst into her Louisville apartment using a no-knock warrant during a narcotics investigation. No drugs were found. | AP Photo/Dylan T. Lovan
A billboard sponsored by O, The Oprah Magazine, is on display with a photo of Breonna Taylor, Friday, Aug. 7, 2020 in Louisville, KY. Twenty-six billboards are going up across Louisville, demanding that the police officers involved in Taylor's death be arrested and charged. Taylor was shot multiple times March 13 when police officers burst into her Louisville apartment using a no-knock warrant during a narcotics investigation. No drugs were found. | AP Photo/Dylan T. Lovan

Oprah Winfrey is setting up billboards around Louisville, KY demanding justice for Breonna Taylor, who was shot and killed in her own home by police officers in March. 

On July 30, O Magazine announced that Oprah would fully give up the cover for the first time in 20 years to honor Taylor in the magazine’s September issue. 

The 26 billboards (one for every year of Taylor’s life) will feature the same image from the magazine along with the demand that the Louisville officers involved in her death be arrested and charged. They will also feature the website for social justice organization Until Freedom and a quote from Winfrey, stating, “If you turn a blind eye to racism, you become an accomplice to it."

Until Freedom, a national organization that has continuously demanded justice for Taylor, recently announced that they are taking up residency in Louisville.

“We will organize day in and day out until those responsible for #BreonnaTaylor’s murder are held accountable and that the systems and those in power understand that we will fight for Black women with all that we have because they are worthy,” they said.

Louisville police officers shot and killed Taylor, a licensed EMT, in March after forcing their way inside her home with a search warrant in a drug investigation.

The Louisville Metro Police Department claimed in March that the plainclothes officers, none of whom were wearing body cameras, announced themselves before entering the apartment. They then returned gunfire when Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shot at them.

However, in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by her family, Taylor's mother Tamika Palmer said the officers did not identify themselves, and that Walker, a licensed gun owner, thought that someone was breaking into the home. Once inside, the suit says the officers proceeded to “spray gunfire into the residence with a total disregard for the value of human life,” and shot Taylor at least eight times. The suit also says neither Taylor nor Walker have any criminal history of drugs or violence.

In the wake of her death, the city passed “Breonna’s Law” in June, which bans the use of no-knock warrants.

According to local news outlet WLKY, the billboards began going up Thursday and all will be up by August 10.