The Jefferson Square Park memorial honoring the life of 26 year-old Breonna Taylor, who was killed by the police, will be relocating to the African American Museum in Louisville.
What We Know:
- The outside mural features a makeshift shrine flooded with flowers, artwork, posters, candles, and other keepsakes left by the people of Kentucky and visitors from other states.
- Shameka Parrish-Wright, co-chair of the Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, shared that as winter approaches the memorial’s current location at Jefferson Square Park, where protests have been held for months, no longer grants the material with a secured and protected space.
- Wright believes the Roots 101 African American Museum in Louisville, Kentucky will be an appropriate home for the mural. Founder of the museum Lamont Collins says the memorial will be stationed upstairs in a room overlooking the Ohio River. The space will not only honor Taylor, but also the victims of police brutality and those who have died protesting.
- Speaking with TIME magazine, Collins explained “When we buried our ancestors, those who went before us — traditionally, we always buried them near water… we have a riverview area here at the museum. So my suggestion is, let’s give her and other people that have died at the protests a room to always honor what they did before us.”
- On one side of the room there will be a casket engraved with the names of police brutality victims and people who have suffered death due to hate crimes. The other side of the room will spotlight mementos dedicated to Taylor.
- Parrish-Wright expressed to TIME her excitement for the memorial’s relocation. Taking it down, rebuilding it, and giving it a permanent home brings tears to her eyes, she says. Although some have suggested a storage unit for the materials of the shrine, she is certain of the destruction that this might welcome and refuses to “let Breonna be buried again”.
The exact timing of the memorial’s relocation is still to be determined.
