Taylor, a black woman who was fatally shot by police in her Louisville home in March, would have turned 27 on Friday.
Now more than ever, Breonna Taylor is being remembered and people are fighting for justice after she was fatally shot in March. On Friday, which would have been Taylor's 27th birthday, her mother, Tamika Palmer, paid tribute to her late daughter.
"Breonna was just full of life. She loved life and she'd light up a room," Palmer expressed during an interview with Good Morning America. "In that brief moment, where people forgot about her for two months at a time, people need to know that Breonna Taylor mattered and that Breonna Taylor was great."
Taylor was an EMT who worked at two local hospitals in Louisville, Kentucky, including amid the coronavirus pandemic. On March 13, she was killed by Louisville Metro Police. Taylor and boyfriend Kenneth Walker were in their own home when police made a late-night raid on the wrong address, looking for someone who had been taken into police custody hours earlier. Taylor was shot eight times.
Following global protests following the death of George Floyd -- a 46-year-old Minneapolis man who died at the hands of police last month -- people are calling for justice for Taylor, along with Ahmaud Arbery and many other African Americans who have in recent years lost their lives to police brutality.
And it's not just Taylor's mother who is remembering the late EMT, who had hopes of becoming a nurse. Celebrities like Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, The Game, John Legend and many more are using their platforms to say her name and help in any way that they can.
"#BreonnaTaylor should be celebrating her 27th birthday today but she was murdered as she slept by police. She worked tirelessly to help people as an EMT. A job she loved," Gabrielle Union wrote on Instagram. "She should be here celebrating her big day with her family and friends. No one has been arrested. The people responsible walk free. #SayHerName Know her story. She should be here. So many Black women have met the same fate. We must not forget Black women when we are fighting."
Lizzo also posted a photo of how to help Taylor's family. "Today would’ve been #breonnataylor birthday. She should be here. Instead she was murdered by police in what they’re calling a 'clerical error,'" she wrote. "They barged into her home without knocking and shot her in her sleep. She worked for us during the covid pandemic, she was an innocent civilian. SAY HER NAME. DEMAND JUSTICE ON HER BIRTHDAY. NO ARRESTS HAVE BEEN MADE.
John Legend also penned an op-ed about the need to speak up and say her name.
"Now is the time for us to join together and emphatically SAY HER NAME. Black women created this call to action because we continue to wrongly talk about the generations-long crisis of police and vigilante violence in a gendered way, as if it only happens to Black men," Legend wrote via Entertainment Weekly. "Today I use my platform to demand justice for this essential person, this woman, daughter, sister, and friend. While her loved ones need to be indeed in our prayers on this hard day, we also must commit to never stop fighting for justice in her name."
Meanwhile, Kanye West donated $2 million in total to Taylor's family, as well as the families of Floyd and Arbery.
See more celeb tributes below. Click HERE to learn how to honor and demand justice for Taylor.
For more information on how to help, as well as support the Black Lives Matter movement, see below.
Fight for Breonna Taylor HERE.
Help the family of George Floyd HERE.
Help the family of Ahmaud Arbery HERE.
Want to help protesters? Donate to one or more community bail funds HERE.
Visit Movement for Black Lives for additional ways you can help the cause.
Want to connect with leaders building grassroots campaigns? Click HERE.
Are you an ally and want to learn more? Here are some anti-racism resources.
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