“Free the Land!,” recently elected mayor, Chowke Antar Lumumba, exclaimed on the eve of his landslide victory.

“Free the Land!” his supporters rallied in response.

Mayor-Elect Chowke Antar Lumumba of Jackson, Mississippi has declared his mission as mayor to make Jackson the “most radical city on the planet.”

Mayor-Elect Lumumba is a social justice activist and attorney. He is also the son of Chowke Antar Lumumba Sr., who previously served as mayor of Jackson before his death. His father was once called “America’s most revolutionary mayor.” Mayor-Elect intends to fill the shoes of his father by honoring his father’s legacy. “We’re happy…to move forward the agenda that my father embarked on, an agenda of a people’s platform, one that was not only…symbolic of his work in his short term as mayor but symbolic of his work, a lifetime work.”

Lumumba ran for mayor once before in 2014, following is father’s mid-term death. He lost to the current incumbent mayor of Jackson, Tony Yarber. But in 2016, he ran once again, garnering 94% of the vote.

Mayor-Elect Lumumba intends to radicalize the city of Jackson by reversing the traditional functionality of government. Instead of allowing those in power to oppress some and uplift a small wealthy minority, he is going to work so that there is unity within the city of Jackson.

He has promised to construct a government that truly operates on the idea of a “government by the people for the people.”

He has focused his attention on getting the community involved with every step of the political process, including every political decision he makes. Hopefully, he intends to follow in the footsteps of his father, holding a town hall forum every three months in order to continually involve citizens in the political decisions that will affect them—and to see what matters to the community he is serving.

It is truly pitiful that a vision such as his is considered radical in our contemporary era. However, you know just as well as I that the idea of ‘human rights for human beings’ can be hard to come by in a contemporary America led by a delusional mad-man.

Most politicians do not seem to carry a dedication to “community sensitivity.”

It disappoints and saddens me to think that giving voice to the voiceless is considered radical. But then again America constantly finds itself being overwhelmed by the ordinances of the wealthy and privileged.

Lumumba has said “Jackson is like many cities: It does not have a problem producing wealth; it has a problem maintaining wealth. And so if you put more money in the people’s hands that live and work [there], you stand a greater chance of receiving it back.”

Jackson currently faces many problems, one of the most prominent being the current water crisis due to lead poisoning the water. Lumumba will also have to decide whether or not Jackson is to become a sanctuary in this Trump-ian era.

I will be following the steps Mayor-Elect Lumumba makes in trying to maintain wealth in the city of Jackson, unionize its workers and create an atmosphere of respect and support to its citizens. Hopefully, he sets an example of what America can accomplish when it alters its attitude and mission.

His first days as mayor are set to include community building because, as he explains, “If you don’t care for your house, nobody will.”