Tim Findley with Louisville protesters outside Churchill Downs on Derby day

LOUISVILLE, Ky., (WDRB) – Demanding justice for Breonna Taylor, several hundred people, including Louisville activists and members of national social justice group Until Freedom, marched to Churchill Downs on Derby day to protest fatal shootings of Black people by police. 

The theme of the march was, "No justice, no Derby." WDRB News' Chad Mills livestreamed the demonstrations, which you can watch below.

Demonstrators met up at South Central Park, just blocks from Churchill Downs, and heard from a series of speakers before the march began. 

"Today we have decided you will have no peace, Louisville, until we have our justice," said Sadiqa Reynolds, president and CEO of the Louisville Urban League, who also advocated for closing the racial and socioeconomic achievement gap.

"We need investment in our dreams," Reynolds said.

Other speakers included the Rev. Timothy Findley Jr., senior pastor of Kingdom Fellowship Christian Life Center on East Broadway, and Dr. F. Bruce Williams of Bates Memorial Baptist Church. 

"We're going to go let them know that people are more important than horses," Williams said. "To let them know that the misery of the masses is more important than the money they want to make."

One man at the protest, Israel McCullough, told a reporter he didn’t think the Derby should be run this year.

"We’re out here for just one sole purpose," he said. "We’re out here for justice."

A woman who addressed the crowd at the beginning of the gathering expressed a similar sentiment, saying, "We don't want mint juleps; we want justice."  

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Demanding justice for Breonna Taylor, several hundred people, including Louisville activists and members of national social justice group Until Freedom, marched to Churchill Downs on Derby day to protest fatal shootings of Black people by police. 

Once the march got to Churchill Downs, protesters did a lap around the racetrack while stopping at times for speakers to address both the crowd and people behind the track gates. 

The group worked its way around to Central Avenue and stopped across the street from the track's main entrance for the running of the 146th Kentucky Derby. 

Once the race was over, Findley used a megaphone to address the demonstrators, saying "This is just the beginning." While Findley spoke, a plane pulling a banner that read, "Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor," flew overhead. 

"Our whole purposed for being out here was to make sure that the world saw us and was not comfortable with what's going on in there," he said. "This is not the end of the fight. Today is not the end, but this sends a message to the mayor, the governor and everyone who makes change in this city that we will show up in forces in places that they don't want us to be. This is not the end. 

"... Do not walk away today thinking that we did not accomplish anything," he told the crowd. "We have accomplished something, and we're gonna keep on pushing and we're gonna keep on fighting, and we forced this city to recognize that the collection of the people is greater than what's going on in there." 

"Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor" banner over Churchill Downs before Derby 146

A banner that says, "Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor" flies above Churchill Downs on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2020, minutes before the running of the 146th Kentucky Derby. (WDRB photo/Eric Crawford)

The group then headed back down Central Avenue to South Central Park and later dispersed. 

Until Freedom relocated to Louisville in early August to protest the handling of the investigation into the fatal police shooting of Taylor, who was shot and killed during a Louisville Metro Police raid on her apartment in March. 

The group, which also organized a sit-in at the home of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, said in a recent a post on the organization's Instagram page that it’s team is moving to Louisville "for the foreseeable future."

"We will organize day in and day out until those responsible for #BreonnaTaylor's murder are held accountable and that the systems and those in power understand that we will fight for Black women with all that we have because they are worthy," the post says. 

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