Oprah Winfrey has graced the cover of her magazine for the past 20 years. Each month, a different image of the talk-show host and philanthropist appears on the cover of O Magazine, making the publication so hard to miss on news stands around the world.
However, this month, Winfrey has stepped back from the limelight in order to shine it on someone else: Breonna Taylor. With Taylor on the cover, she aims to send a powerful message honouring and demanding justice for Breonna Taylor.
In an essay posted on the O Magazine website, Winfrey explains why she decided to use an image of Taylor for the cover, writing about how she identifies with her and mourns the plans she had for her life that she never got the chance to see through.
“What I know for sure: We can’t be silent,” Winfrey writes. “We have to use whatever megaphone we have to cry for justice.” And thankfully, Winfrey has one of the biggest megaphones of all, with a voice and a platform that many listen to.
“Imagine if three unidentified men burst into your home while you were sleeping,” she continues. “And your partner fired a gun to protect you. And then mayhem. 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.”
On March 13 2020, Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old aspiring nurse, was murdered by Louisville police officers when they entered her apartment without knocking or announcing themselves as police. Protesters across the world have been demanding that Kentucky officials “arrest the cops that killed Breonna Taylor,” but only Hankison, the officer who “blindly fired ten rounds from his gun, some of which went into the adjoining apartment,” Oprah writes, has been fired.
O Magazine went on to ask their readers to “continue the fight for Breonna Taylor” by signing petitions, demand that the remaining officers involved be fired and charged and to donate to the Louisville Community Bail Fund to help Black Lives Matter protesters.
“I cry for justice in her name,” Oprah concludes.
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