Mayor Chokwe Lumumba has helped bring a grass-roots approach to idea generation and decision-making to Jackson, both in the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, which he co-founded, and later as a Ward 2 councilman. Now as mayor, and at the top of a hierarchal system that the assemblies reject, Lumumba now hopes to bring more people’s assemblies to the city.
The MXGM website says that the “assemblies are organized as expressions of participatory or direct democracy, wherein there is guided facilitation and agenda setting provided by the committees that compose the People’s Task Force, but no preordained hierarchy. The People’s Task Force is the working or executing body of the Assembly. The Task Force is composed of committees that are organized around proposals emerging from the Assembly to carry out various tasks and initiatives, such as organizing campaigns and long-term institution building and development work.”
See also:
Vision 2022: A Regional Vision
Big Ideas: Getting Jacksonians into City Parks
Bright Idea: Conserve Energy, Create Jobs
Best Practice: Mid-South Minority Business Council Continuum
Build a Bicycle- and Pedestrian-Friendly Jackson
