By Blake Haas

BLOOMINGTON – On what would have been Breonna Taylor’s 27th birthday, members of the Black Lives Matter movement constructed a community altar to honor Ms. Taylor’s life at the McLean County Law and Justice Center.

Organizer Radiance Campbell said the message of the altar is clear.

“It’s a space for healing. It’s a space to commit to the kind of future that we want, and I think that those are two things that the community is looking for right now…This alter we have put in the dedication to Breonna Taylor for her birthday.”

On March 13, Louisville police executed a search warrant after police were investigating two men, who they believed were selling drugs from a home far from Taylor’s house. Once police entered Taylor’s homes, police shot Taylor eight times after police said Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shot an officer in the leg. The search warrant was a “no-knock warrant” which allowed LPD to enter without identifying themselves.

“We need her justice, and we need all the other Black people’s justice that hasn’t been served yet…This message is to make sure that they know that we care about this and that our community cares about it,” Katelynn Burgett, alter attendee said.

The interactive alter allows community members to write their feelings on three different boards asking questions like “healing in our community looks like…,” if we defund the police we could fund…,” and “I’m sorry for… and I commit too…”

“We chose (to set up at the) Law and Justice Center for many reasons, one being the amount of protests that have taken place here over the last week…I look at things like the Montgomery bus boycotts, and I remember that that took over a year, so this is not something that’s going to pop up and go away overnight or the next couple of months, this is a long fight,” Campbell added.

The community altar will remain open until Sunday.

Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].