MICD Just City Fellowship, 2020

Promoting design justice through leadership

From September to December 2020, the Mayors Institute on City Design (MICD) partnered with the Just City Lab (JCL) at the Harvard Graduate School of Design for the MICD Just City Mayoral Fellowship. This online fellowship was divided into three modules—Conditions of Injustice, Neighborhood Change, and Design for Justice—which were further divided into nine sessions. Together, they took seven mayors and their staffs through time demonstrating how the combination of politics and design have caused lasting harm in communities. Yet, the modules also made apparent how these same tools may be used to subvert injustice to create the alternative futures for which cities strive. MICD Just City Mayoral Fellows included Mayor Randall L. Woodfin ( Birmingham, AL); Mayor Stephen K. Benjamin (Columbia, SC); Mayor Yvonne Spicer (Framingham, MA); Mayor Errick D. Simmons (Greenville, MS); Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba (Jackson, MS); Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard (Mount Vernon, NY); and Mayor Vince R. Williams (Union City, GA ).