By Camm Ashford
State Rep.Yusuf Hakeem, who represents District 28, is responsible for a number of landmark bills passed during the 112th General Assembly.
Some of the bills include:
HB 2106: Black History Bill requires, rather than recommends, that the course of instruction for students in grades five through eight include curricula designed to educate students in black history and black culture.
HB 1459: Allows the magistrate to order, as a condition of release or bail, a person arrested for the offense of aggravated domestic assault to remain in police custody up to 24 hours when necessary.
HB 0720: Authorizes a nonprofit organization to conduct a bingo game as its annual event for purposes of the Tennessee Nonprofit Gaming Law.
HB 0722: Prohibits a county election commissioner from voting on issues that directly affect the commissioner’s immediate family member who is a candidate for office; requires a county election commissioner to be recused of official duties 30 days prior to an election if an immediate family member of the commissioner is a candidate for office in that county.
HB 0723: Requires the department to publish the guidelines for the best practices for identifying and reporting signs of child abuse, child sexual abuse, and human trafficking in which the victim is a child on the department’s website.
HB 2565 (pending approval): Requires the department to develop a plan for providing remote use of the special supplemental food program for women, infants, and children at a substantially similar level as has been available during calendar years 2020 and 2021 and deliver the plan to the health and welfare committee of the senate and the health committee of the house of representatives by December 15, 2022.
Rep. Hakeem served on the Chattanooga City Council for District 9 from 1990 to 2006, and again from 2013 to 2017. During this time, he founded the Chattanooga Youth Council, now called the Mayor’s Youth Council.
In 2018, Hakeem announced his candidacy for the Tennessee House of Representatives District 28. He was endorsed by the retiring state representative JoAnne Favors, who said in a public release, “Yusuf Hakeem is the right person for the job… He has years of experience in public service, and would not face a learning curve as a first time elected official. He is prepared for the work now.”
Rep. Hakeem won the contested Democratic primary on August 2, 2018, and later was elected to the office on November 6, 2018, defeating Lemon Williams, Jr.