By the time Tennessee representative London Lamar tells me she’s “a softy and a sweet person,” she had already removed all doubt.
The ambitious lawmaker—the youngest black woman in the Tennessee state House by more than 30 years—has a demeanor that reminds me of spiced honey: sweet and soothing, but not afraid to kick. She’s the type of person who touches you on the knee periodically; sometimes to emphasize a point, other times just to let you know she feels you.