State Sen. Kimberly Lightford: From Childhood Trauma to Pioneering Leadership

Before State Sen. Kimberly Lightford (D-Maywood) became the first Black woman to serve as Majority Leader for the Illinois Senate, she would build her 26-year political career on some motherly advice. “When I first suggested to my mom there was an opportunity for me to run for office, she was totally against it. She said, ‘Politics was dirty. It was nasty.’ And I wasn’t that type of person. She didn’t think it would be a good fit for me,” Lightford said in a recent interview with The Chicago Defender.& She tried to calm her mother’s fears over her decision to run as a trustee in her community. But that’s when she received that precious advice that would become her motto.& “Just mind your business and do the work.” “For me,” said Lightford, “that was getting her blessing in some odd way.”& In year 26 of her tenure as a state senator, Lightford built her legacy chiefly on education reform and racial equity, minding the business that minded her. For example, Lightford sponsored a Senate bill to address the school-to-prison pipeline and the disproportionately high number of Black student suspensions by requiring public schools to eliminate zero tolerance policies in suspending...