Becoming executive director of Black Lives Matter Lake County just over a month ago, Zakee Darr is taking a two-pronged approach to serve the needs of a diverse community by providing resources while not ignoring issues such as police accountability and equity.
Born in North Chicago and raised on the south side of Waukegan, where the organization’s resource center and headquarters are located, Darr, now a Zion resident, made a career in social services before retiring in 2018.
Darr said he is coming out of retirement to make a difference in a community he has called home for years. Though the faces have changed, it remains a place where people work hard to make a better life for their families and themselves, he said. Many need a hand up.
“The center is walking distance from where I grew up,” he said. “The demographics have shifted, but it still has a family feel. Now it’s mostly Hispanic. It feels good to come home and make a difference in the community I grew up in.”
Darr became executive director of Black Lives Matter Lake County on April 9, moving into the two-story resource center on Lenox Avenue in Waukegan with plans to strengthen the center and deal with issues which brought the Black Lives Matter movement to prominence in 2013.
Opening its first office nearly six years ago in downtown Waukegan, Black Lives Matter Lake County was focused primarily on political issues, as well as helping people deal with the criminal justice system.
Taking a new turn toward community service, the organization opened its current community resource center while continuing its political mission. Darr took over from founder and former Executive Director Clyde McLemore, taking time to thoroughly evaluate the situation.
“I did a lot of soul searching,” Darr said. “I was not sure about taking this on, but I got a lot of encouragement. I decided to focus on the resource center so we can help people in the community.”
Along with operating the center to meet residents’ needs, he said the mission of Black Lives Matter will continue with advocacy throughout the county for police accountability, equity and equal treatment of all people.
Shortly after assuming his leadership duties, Darr said he established an advisory council of community members. They will be involved in the decision-making process. Some, like Jackie Cunningham, have a social services background.
Cunningham said mental health, housing, substance abuse and gun violence are issues at the top of her list.
“This is something which can better the community, and can reduce some of the barriers which exist in Lake County,” she said. “I want to give back, and this is something I can do to help.”
The Rev. Lamont Taylor, the pastor of the Seventh Day Adventist churches in Gurnee and Northbrook and a Gurnee resident, said he has known Darr for years. After talking to him, Taylor believes the revitalized organization can be good for the area.
“He shared with me what he wanted to do, and I like what I heard,” Taylor said, “We’re called Black Lives Matter, but I believe all lives matter and that means we reach out to everybody.”
When it comes to Black Lives Matter, Darr said there is more involved than police accountability and equity. There should not be barriers to advancement in the workplace, and employment law should be enforced.
Housing is among the resources Darr said the organization wants to help people find, as well as mental health and fatherhood. Before he retired, part of his work involved getting fathers more involved in the lives of their children.
“Housing is huge, and mental health is on everyone’s minds in every conversation,” Darr said. “There is an absenteeism of fathers in the African American community,” he added, referring to the fatherhood issue. “We can help them navigate the child support system.”
A major focus for Darr is securing grant funding. He wants to use it to pay for programs and hire a bilingual individual to assist Spanish-speaking members of the community.
McLemore said Wednesday he scaled back his involvement with Black Lives Matter Lake County in March after a physical altercation at the Waukegan office, and he was diagnosed with cancer.
A disagreement between McLemore and Nyesha Hill, an independent contractor secured by McLemore to obtain grants, led to the events that caused his decision to resign upon the hiring of a replacement.
Hill was already working for Black Lives Matter when the office opened on Sept. 24. On Oct. 24, the two of them got into a fight and exchanged blows. It was recorded on internal surveillance cameras, according to a Waukegan police report dated Jan. 26.
Both Hill and McLemore were seen pushing and hitting each other on a staircase in the office, according to the report. The video was part of the police report. McLemore told police the video was altered before it was placed on the internet in February, according to the report.
Now McLemore wants to focus on his health and getting the proper treatment in his fight against cancer. He expressed pride in what was accomplished during his tenure.
“I started it at my kitchen table and took it all the way to opening the resource center,” McLemore said. “I couldn’t have done it without God’s help. I’m willing to help as much as I can.”
