Oprah Winfrey, born in Mississippi in 1954, broke barriers early in her media career when she was the youngest person and first Black woman to become a news anchor at a local Nashville station.
Winfrey would continue to push boundaries and set records as she became a household name, appearing daily in homes across the country with “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” Winfrey’s talk show aired nationally for 25 seasons from 1986 to 2011. It is one of the longest-running daytime television talk shows in history.
Over the course of the show’s 25-year run, Winfrey used her platform both on and off the air to highlight various artists and issues to shift public attention.
In 2018, Winfrey’s legacy and impact of her long-running show was honored with an exhibit at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The temporary exhibit, called “Watching Oprah,” featured artifacts from the set of the show, as well as costumes from Winfrey’s movies.
Winfrey may have stopped her show in 2011, but in the nine years since she has remained an active figure in pop culture and media. After wrapping the show, Winfrey launched the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).
Winfrey’s magazine, “The Oprah Magazine,” or “O,” also continues to be published monthly and is one platform Winfrey has used to push for social change. Recently, she swapped out the magazine’s typical cover featuring a photo of Winfrey for one of Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old EMT who was killed by police while sleeping at her home in Louisville, Ky. The cover was accompanied by the magazine purchasing 26 billboards in Louisville featuring Taylor’s face demanding the arrest of the police officers involved in her killing.
“Breonna Taylor. She was just like me. She was just like you. And like everyone who dies unexpectedly, she had plans. Plans for a future filled with responsibility and work and friends and laughter,” Winfrey wrote in an article about her decision to feature Taylor on the cover.
“What I know for sure: We can’t be silent. We have to use whatever megaphone we have to cry for justice. And that is why Breonna Taylor is on the cover of O magazine,” Winfrey added. “I cry for justice in her name.”
— Rebecca Klar
photo: Getty Images