Wednesday made five years since this city rose up. While the rest of the country thinks of those days as the George Floyd protests, here in Louisville it was Breonna Taylor who was foremost on our minds. We said his name too, but we were focused on justice for one of the city's own.
To mark the anniversary, we gathered once again in Injustice Square Park downtown. Speeches were given, there was singing and dancing, and a general rejoicing in the company of old comrades. LMPD never took down the spotlights they put up in 2020 surrounding the square, they even lit them up again, it was just like old times.
With the abrupt dismissal of the consent decree and the continued lack of justice, you would almost expect the mood to be grim but that was far from the case. There were still heavy moments but there's something about being around the people you were with on the days you didn't expect to survive that is oddly heartening.
Breonna's mother was there, along with the father of Tyler Gerth, the photographer killed in the square. Fred Hampton Jr. came down from Chicago in support, as well as the father of Jacob Blake. In the years since, ten people connected to the protests have died, remembering our martyrs was interwoven with the day's festivities.
Still, 'if I can't dance, I don't want to be a part of your revolution' was alive and well. It was supposed to run from 4-7pm but 9pm rolled around and things were still going strong.
While not much has changed in the fight for justice for Breonna, it was interesting to see how much the ones doing the fighting had changed. The kids from the square were much taller and getting ready to go to college, and so many folks who'd never been active before 2020 were now organizers building power in the community.
They tried to bury me
They didn't know
I was a seed -- Breonna Taylor
NOW WE ARE A MOVEMENT
