For 20 years, Oprah Winfrey herself has graced the cover of O, the Oprah Magazine, flexing on us in grocery-store checkout lanes across the country. But this month, she stepped away from the limelight to send a powerful message honoring and demanding justice for Breonna Taylor. “Imagine if three unidentified men burst into your home while you were sleeping,†Oprah writes in the essay explaining the cover. “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.â€
Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT and aspiring nurse, was murdered by Louisville police officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove when they entered her apartment without knocking or announcing themselves as police on March 13. Protesters across the world have been demanding for months 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 asks readers to “continue the fight for Breonna Taylor†by signing petitions; calling Kentucky’s attorney general, mayor, governor, and the Public Integrity Unit of the Louisville Metro Police Department to demand that the remaining officers involved be fired and charged; and donating to the Louisville Community Bail Fund to help Black Lives Matter protesters. “I cry for justice in her name,†Oprah concludes.