The founder of Black Lives Matter Lake County says he will resign after being caught on video engaging in a physical fight at his Waukegan office with a female worker who alleges he mishandled organization funds.
Black Lives Matter Lake County Founder and Executive Director Clyde McLemore said in a statement Thursday that there have been videos circulating regarding an altercation between him and a volunteer at the organization.
McLemore said he knows many people in the community have seen it.
“In that moment, the situation began with the volunteer confronting me in a very heated way. However, I should not have allowed the situation to escalate and perpetuate the way it did,” he said.
“As someone who has spent more than four decades serving this community, I know that I am expected to handle difficult moments with patience and restraint. I take responsibility for my part in what happened,” McLemore said.
The statement issued was a quick reversal from McLemore’s words just a day prior when he posted a video on YouTube defending himself, claiming the videos were “altered.”
The story of the incident was first published by Lake and McHenry County Scanner on Tuesday and included a video, which went viral on the internet, of McLemore engaging in a physical fight at his organization’s Waukegan office with Nyesha A. Hill.
The video surfaced after the Waukegan Police Department responded around 12:30 p.m. on January 12 to the Black Lives Matter Resource Center, 668 Lenox Avenue in Waukegan, for a report of an unknown subject and a battery call.
A police report obtained by Lake and McHenry County Scanner said officers spoke with McLemore and Hill at the scene.
McLemore told officers he was in his office on his computer when Hill, who is a worker at the organization, came into the office asking for money and cigarettes, the report said.
McLemore said he told Hill no because he did not have any money and asked her to get out.
Bodycam video shows McLemore telling officers his organization “ain’t got no money” so he could not pay Hill for her work. “That money is gone,” McLemore said, referring to a grant.
He said she refused and he put on his jacket to leave when she grabbed him by the hood and hit him, leading to a physical fight, the report said.
McLemore told officers the two pushed each other around the office until he called 911.
McLemore was seen with a scratch on his forehead and lip from the fight but he told officers he did not want to press charges, the report said.
Officers then spoke with Hill, who said she works for McLemore as a project manager and went to his office to ask where her money was, and he told her he was not giving her anything and to get out of his office, the report said.
“I told him, ‘it’s not fair that I come here and I work and you running around taking care of other things that don’t got nothing to do with Black Lives Matter with Black Lives Matter money.’ I’m the one that make this joint work,” Hill told officers, according to bodycam video.
Hill said she refused to leave his office until he paid her for working at the organization.
She told officers that he then got up from his seat and shoved her back with his hands and they began fighting. Hill was observed to have a scratch on her lip and broken nails.
She also told officers she did not want to press charges because she “does not want to see a black man in jail” but wished to file a police report and a witness statement.
In police reports, Hill told officers that she saw McLemore spend money allocated for Black Lives Matter on other things, including “girls” and gambling.
Officers noted that they did not have probable cause to make an arrest because of both having injuries and due to the conflicting statements.
Officers told Hill and McLemore not to have contact with each other and informed them of how to obtain an order of protection, the report said.
In addition to being the Founder and Executive Director of the Black Lives Matter Lake County chapter, McLemore is also a member of the Lake County Regional Board of School Trustees.
A surveillance video captured a separate physical fight between Hill and McLemore from months earlier.
It is unclear when exactly that incident occurred as Hill told officers the video was from November 24, while McLemore told them the video was from November 2, the police reports show. The video itself shows a timestamp date of October 24.
Police obtained a copy of that video after being called to the January 12 physical altercation involving the two.
Detectives spoke to McLemore after obtaining the November video. That fight also stemmed from a money dispute, the police reports said.
He told them he did not have video footage of the January 12 incident on his office’s surveillance system as that occurred inside his office, which is not covered by video surveillance.
McLemore also told detectives he did not have a copy of the November video as the system only retains footage for approximately two months.
McLemore, a Zion resident, initially told Lake and McHenry County Scanner he had no comment on the incidents before issuing the lengthy statement on Thursday announcing he was resigning.
“Regardless of how the situation began, I regret that the disagreement escalated and I sincerely apologize for the example that it set and for the disappointment it has caused. My conduct in that moment is not reflective of the mission or the values of the Black Lives Matter movement, which is rooted in respect for human dignity, accountability, and justice,” he said.
“No matter the circumstances, everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. To the community that has supported me for so many years, I want you to know that I hear your concerns. I remain committed to the values of respect, accountability, and service that have guided my work for decades, and I will continue working to earn and maintain your trust,” McLemore said.
McLemore said he is actively seeking a community leader who can take over his role as executive director in order to carry on the mission of Black Lives Matter Lake County “without any distractions.”
In the bodycam video, Hill can be seen telling officers that she and McLemore routinely got into altercations over money issues when he does not pay her for working for him while she “sits here hungry” with her child.
Court records show McLemore and Hill both later went to the Lake County Courthouse and attempted to obtain emergency stalking no-contact orders against each other.
In October 2024, McLemore was sentenced to 40 days in jail for taking photographs in Lake County Circuit Court and posting them online in violation of courthouse rules. He posted a video online admitting to his actions while saying, “I do what I want to do.”
McLemore has previously been arrested for trespassing at a Waukegan City Council meeting in October 2022 and participating in civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in February 2021.
Hill also has a criminal history, including being charged in a kidnapping with an accomplice where they beat the victim in Zion and demanded ransom for his release in June 2020. She was sentenced to over four years in prison in the case.