Imokhai was first documented in June of 2020 as part of the Essential series with for his work with Freedom BLOC. He had just graduated from law school and was ready to take the bar exam, which kept getting delayed due to COVID. In September, Imokhai was finally able to take the exam. “It was a wild time,” he said. “In the midst of all the delays, I was debating on what to do. People weren’t hiring during COVID but I thought I might as well finish this out. I kept wrestling with what to do. Then I passed the bar the first time and worked for a global law firm, which was a good opportunity. I started off making crazy money, got a downtown Cleveland apartment, it was fun for a while. I got to try a lot of new things, new restaurants, clubs, go to parties. But eventually it stopped being fun and it wasn't as fulfilling as I thought it would be.
I wanted to be a trial lawyer. I wanted to be working with people, but I found myself at a job where I was working with corporations. There were 200 attorneys at this law firm just in the Cleveland office and only four of us were Black.
Then you start to learn about the clients we were defending and you find yourself on the wrong side of things. The firm represented big tobacco companies that were manipulating consumers for profit. People were dying. I got wrapped into work on a bribery scandal in Ohio. This was evil. Behind the scenes they’re just trying to siphon consumers and take all this money just for profit, but every day people are suffering.
I was billing $450/hour. It felt like dirty work. I tried to make up for it by doing a lot of pro-bono work all over the country. I got a lot of opportunities to help people but it didn’t fill my cup.”
With the desire for a more community-centered life, Imokhai moved back to Akron in September of 2022. “I learned more about politics, culture and developed my own real analysis about what is actually going on,” Imokhai said. While still working at his corporate job, Imokhai continued his work with Freedom BLOC and other organizers in the community. He was heavily immersed in the community efforts to bring justice to Jayland Walker’s murder. He applied to be on the Akron Citizens' Police Oversight Board. Though he was qualified, passionate about this work and had a lot of community support, he didn't get on the board. Two months later, a grand jury ruled that all officers were cleared of criminal charges for Jayland Walker’s murder. “I was disillusioned with this corporate life. Disillusioned with this idea that you can work at these systems and to try to make some change. I just really wanted not to not be so tied to the system.”
In June of 2023, Imokhai quit his corporate job and started his own law firm in Akron: The Okolo Law Firm. “It's been a struggle. I don't make nearly as much money as I made at the law firm, but I'm so much more happy with my day-to-day. The money is not as important as living a life waking up every day feeling more alive and feeling like I'm actually doing something I want to do,” he said. “I’m not just some shell of a person, I’m actually a full human being.”
Imokhai also started a program called People Feeding People, which consists of 7 core people who travel around Akron weekly to pass out free groceries. The program is growing and gaining momentum.
“I'm doing work that I thought would be so cool to do. Following the lineage of folks like The Black Panther Party, Malcolm X—I found it important to continue this radical tradition fighting for freedom of deliberation of people. These things are possible to change with organized people and organized resources.”
Imokhai spoke about the clarity he gained over the past four years.
“I think for me, I got a better sense of clarity on who I was and who I was potentially capable of being. I just felt like the direction I was going prior to the pandemic was not where I was meant to be going or where I truly wanted to go. I really believe in the concept “I am because we are”. This is a collective experience here and no one person can survive on their own. We need each other. If your survival is dependent on someone else’s lack of survival, that seems really shitty. We should change that.”
June, 2020
Freedom BLOC