Her Leadership Helped Black Women Address A Community Taboo

big pink ribbon on display in a park
Via Wikimedia Commons
Shonda Buchanan
October 3, 2022

She’d only been in office a few days, yet her racist enemies hated her. They were likely happy when they heard the devastating news.

Daisy Riley Lloyd wasn’t just fighting for her career. She was fighting for her life.

Previously a stay at home mom, she’d thwarted “good old boy” politics on the campaign trail.

When her breast cancer diagnosis became public, she debated relinquishing her hard earned position as a Black woman elected to Indiana’s State Legislature in dangerous KKK controlled territory.

But she realized she had a rare platform to confront the stigma and reality of a disease that was killing Black women at a disproportionately high rate.

So before her surgery, she made a major boss move.

She televised her condition from her hospital bed! Instead of hiding, or quitting, she created a safe space for Black women and their loved ones to openly discuss a deadly taboo.

Reporters crowded around her hospital bed as she made her statements. No one would stop her from speaking the truth and breaking down the stigma. And guess what she did after?

She got back to work!

We must always confront taboos and refuse to cower to the stigma of naysayers. Our bravery can ultimately lead to saving Black lives.

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