#SayHerName Marks Five Year Anniversary with Breonna Taylor Recognition

Breonna Taylor’s name is the most recent addition to the tragic list of Black women killed by police. The #SayHerName Movement launched in 2015 by attorney Kimberle Crenshaw and the African American Policy Forum she founded memorializes the female victims of police brutality.

Friday night in Louisville, Kentucky where Taylor was killed by police protesters gathered for another rally, shouting “no justice, no peace.”

They returned after seven protesters were shot last night during a rally attended by hundreds. Police say none of them was shot by law enforcement.

The crowds in Louisville where police shot and killed Taylor while delivering a “no-knock” warrant are linked to the hundreds in Minneapolis who took to the streets after a videotape showed a white police officer kneeling for several minutes on the neck of an unarmed Black man, George Floyd, who later died at the hospital. Charges were filed against the officer earlier Friday. Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee Joe Biden mentioned Taylor during a recorded statement his campaign released to address the Floyd case.

“We’ve spoken their names aloud, we’ve cried them out in pain and in horror, we’ve chiseled them into our longsuffering hearts,” Biden said. “They’re the latest additions to the endless list of stolen potential wiped out unnecessarily.

The Mothers of #SayHerName

In an open letter to Taylor’s mother, the mothers of #SayHerName offered support.

“I hate we have to meet under these circumstances,” said Fran Garrett, whose 50-year-old daughter, Michelle Cusseaux was killed by Phoenix police in 2014 when she raised a hammer over her head. Cusseaux suffered from mental illness, and police had been called to transport her to a psychiatric facility.

Gina Best added, “Now, you’re dealing with something you never could even begin to plan for or account for, and that is the murder of your beautiful daughter….they don’t wanna hear about Black women being killed by police at all.”

Best’s daughter, India Kager, was shot and killed by Virginia Beach police when a suspect in her car opened fire on police. Police returned fire, and Kager and Angelo Perry were killed. Their four-month-old baby was in the car but unharmed.

Maria Moore, whose sister Kayla died in police custody in Berkeley, California, joined the “mothers of sorrow” to embrace Taylor’s mother.

She said, “Every holiday, every birthday is a reminder. As a family, we come together and that’s what gets us through.”

“We love you…we know what’s it like,” Best asserted in the videotaped open letter.

“We need to keep it going, and say her name,” stated Garrett.

Photo Credit: The African American Policy Forum