She’s also the first openly LGBTQ state representative in Kentucky!
Breonna Taylor justice advocate Keturah Herron has been named one of USA Today’s “Women of the Year,” The Grio reports.
Herron got her start as a lobbyist with the ACLU of Kentucky, joining in 2019 where she focused on shifting legislation around juvenile justice. When 26-year-old Breonna Taylor was killed by Louisville Metropolitan Police executing a no-knock warrant in March 2020, Herron’s passion changed, and she shifted her focus to getting the no-knock warrants banned in the city of Louisville.
This past February, Herron was elected to Kentucky’s House of Representatives via special election, winning the seat for District 42 by a landslide. Herron noted that she would be focused on bringing change to the district and hopefully making a difference, describing herself to reporters as an abolitionist.
“I think the system we have today does not work. It has never worked. I don’t think it’s going to work. But I also know and understand that we can’t today just say completely tear it down. What are the alternatives? How do we create a society in which we don’t even need this type of carceral system?,” said Herron.
USA Today has now named Herron as one of their 2022 “Women of the Year,” an extension of their “Women of the Century” project which aims to highlight “trailblazing women in every state in the United States, including Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. This year's honorees will be celebrated at a special charitable program. Girls Inc., a nonprofit centered on supporting and developing girls is this year’s charitable benefactor and will be given a $25,000 grant by USA Today’s parent company, Gannett.
Herron spoke candidly about some of her hopes for the country as a justice warrior, saying the thing she wants to see most “is that incarceration is not the main thing that we do in our society… [I see] a society where people have their basic needs met, that people are not living in poverty.”
Congratulations Keturah! Because of you, we can.
Photo Courtesy of Keturah Herron/Facebook