Breonna Taylor and Cynthia Brown

I’ve been thinking a lot about Breonna Taylor. She was 26 years old. She loved her job in health care, enjoyed playing cards with her aunts, and often fell asleep during movies. A year ago, on March 13th, police officers executing a no-knock warrant in the middle of the night killed her in her apartment in Louisville, Kentucky. A year later there is still no justice for Breonna, so we continue to say her name and demand justice. Let us not forget either, folks that are still suffering in the aftermath of Breonna’s death, like Kenneth Walker III. Here are a few things I’ve been paying attention to in the fight for justice for Breonna: 

The other person on my mind is Cynthia Brown, great-granddaughter of Athalia Howe Whitfield who refused to die without her great-granddaughter hearing the truth. In 1966, from her deathbed in Pennsylvania, she made a final, desperate attempt to tell Cynthia Brown what she witnessed. This is critical truth-telling in tracing the roots of white supremacy and the mis-telling (lie) of history. Wilmington North Carolina,1898. In the post-Reconstruction era, this port city was the freest town in the country for Black people, with a thriving Black middle class and a large Black electorate and a local government that included Black aldermen, police officers and magistrates. That ended with a bloody campaign of violence and intimidation by white supremacists. The truth of this important story—the brutal mischaracterization of Black men and the rise of white supremacy must be told. Dive in here: 

Let us continue to speak their names, and tell the truth.

Published: March 2021
Author: Angie Stewart
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Program Lead and Facilitator Engagement Program Manager
Organizational Learning