Photo credit: Tom Jenz
Community organizer Vaun L. Mayes
In 2012, a short prison term recently behind him, 25-year old Vaun L. Mayes was searching for some kind of purpose. One day, he was driving down MLK Drive and he spotted hundreds of protestors. They had assembled to call attention to the tragic teenager Trayvon Martin who was shot and killed in Florida. The shooter was George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch coordinator for his gated community. Across the nation, black communities had erupted in response to the killing.
Mayes jumped out of his car and joined the protest. He had found his purpose. Over the next eight years, he has dedicated his life to his role as a community organizer. He now heads up Community Task Force Milwaukee, a group of youth leaders, activists, faith-based organizations, and politicians seeking peace, unity, and progress. COMTF MKE also acts as a violence prevention platform and a source for what Mayes calls, “true community news apart from the mainstream press.”
I met Mayes in front of the Sherman Phoenix coffee shop on 36th and Fond du Lac, a community gathering place for area residents, almost all African-Americans. A large strong man with the body of a linebacker and an army of tattoos platooned on his arms, Mayes exhibits a resolute expression which sometimes dissolves into an engaging grin.
“Our Goal is Peaceful”
Mayes explained how he organized the first Milwaukee protest march at 27th and Center on Friday, May 29 that called attention to the tortured killing of George Floyd by a policeman in Minneapolis. He said, “Our goal was to be peaceful. After a few speeches, we dispersed and the crowd decided under different leadership to march downtown toward Red Arrow Park. As we were marching, more and more people joined us. Many were agitators I didn’t even recognize. By late afternoon, the march was getting out of hand. My people and I turned around and went home.”
Days later, the protesters had left a path of robbery and destruction, and the mainstream media flooded the airwaves with videos.
Mayes said, “Right now, I’m tryin’ to help get our neighborhoods to clean up the mess. It’s my own people who suffer. We don’t need this shit burnt up. We conducted multiple clean ups after both nights of unrest. I don't agree with everything happening in our community with the destruction, but I understand this is where destruction won't be met by much resistance.”
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Mayes made it clear that protest and unrest can become divisive and counterproductive when residents, youth and elders are at odds due to different responses to the unrest.
Mayes wasn’t always a peace activist. He was one of 10 children, and his mother fostered hum out to an uncle in Mississippi where life was fairly calm. When he was 15, Mayes returned to Milwaukee to live with his grandma. Before long, he was out on the streets, homeless, sleeping on porches or wherever a friend might put him up.
Sense of Direction
He talked about his youthful mistakes. “I had no sense of direction,” he said, “I was stealing cars and involved in gang fights. I had abandonment issues. My dad was in prison. My mom had drug issues. Nobody cared about me.” Between short terms in juvie jail, he attended three different inner city high schools: Washington, North, and Rufus King. He was expelled from them all. Finally, he ended up in Project Excel, a school for juveniles on probation. Under strict discipline, he excelled, earning a 4.0 grade point average.
After he finished high school, a friend stole a car, and Mayes helped him remove the speakers. The cops caught him, and he got 3 years with an 18-month stayed sentence, which was eventually revoked, and he spent 18 months in prison due to revocation. “Terrible experience,” he explained, eyes downcast. When he got out of prison, he was determined to make something of himself. He had two kids to support. He worked construction for three years, became a supervisor and had his own apartment.
Sometime after his epiphany experience in the 2012 Trayvon Martin peace march, Mayes started Program The Parks to help teens in his area de-escalate their conflicts in Sherman Park. His organization Community Task Force Milwaukee now provides meals, activities, and guidance to teens growing up on the streets and often without direction. As a street leader advocating programs for needy central city citizens, Mayes is also involved in other charitable groups
While Mayes and I were talking, several people stopped by to ask his advice on community action initiatives including protest cleanups and food distribution to the needy. At one point, Police Officer Lawson Murrell, an African American community liaison, interrupted our conversation. I could tell the two men were comfortable with each other. “Vaun and I go back a long way,” Officer Murrell commented.
After the people drifted away, Mayes told me his passion is to get justice for African Americans all over America. He has a plan. It includes law, policy, and legislation, and that means legal defense against unlawful arrest. He said, “I think you should be able to defend yourself against abusive police. For instance, if a cop violates my rights and is violent with me, I have a right to defend myself.” His plan would also include the red flag system, an automatic review if there are competing disputes between cop and victim.
Mayes turned strongly passionate when he told me, “We need to get our leadership together and that means all leaders to ensure we finally have change. We need to institute law, policy, and legislative change. Period! ASAP! No fuckin’ around with political speak. This shit’s got to end. The CNNs, the MSNBCs, the Foxes, they need to stop talkin’ to the politicians and pundits who dance the half-step and dance around the topic. They need to be talkin’ to leaders on the ground such as myself. The politicians we the people elected don’t meet with people on the ground. Most don’t even show up in our neighborhoods.”
He concluded, “And the community don’t need no more prayers during a press conference, or prayers during a march. If y’all want to help, y’all can organize around the demands that we have for this community for shit to change.”
For more of our coverage of the protests occurring across Milwaukee, click here.
