Mayor Zohran Mamdani has promised to uphold the city’s ideals of racial justice and equity beyond mere political platitudes. Apparently his first step will be rejuvenating the mayor’s Racial Justice and Equity Office.

The impetus behind the racial equity office can be traced back to the nationwide reckoning over George Floyd’s murder in 2020. The city was charged up and demanded structural changes be made at the administrative level that might actually address systemic issues impacting Black and Brown New Yorkers.

Mamdani has tapped Afua Atta-Mensah, executive director of Community Voices Heard, to be the next racial justice chief equity officer and commissioner. She has previously held roles including chief of programs at community change, executive director of Community Voices Heard, and director of litigation and policy at the Urban Justice Center. She says she is humbled and a little nervous by the appointment, but above all laser-focused on succeeding where the last administration stumbled.

“What I want to make sure we’re doing is moving with deliberate speed, to be talking across all the agencies, continue to gather information, and to release this in a manner that is digestible and clear with the eye towards implementation,” said Atta-Mensah.

Ariama C. Long photos

Mayor Zohran Mamdani at the Martin Luther King Day event at National Action Network (NAN) on Monday, January 19, 2026. Chief Equity Officer and Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Equity & Racial Justice (MOERJ) Afua Atta-Mensah.NYC MOERJ Commissioner Afua Atta-Mensah (at podium) speaks in Harlem on Jan. 15.Crowds of community organizers gather to hear the announcement of the mayor’s new racial justice commissioner at Harlem Justice Center.

In March 2021, former Mayor Bill de Blasio greenlit the formation of the first Racial Justice Commission (RJC) and appointed 11 commissioners, including Jennifer Jones Austin, CEO and executive director of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (FPWA), who was chair. Following seven months of public forums and interviews, the RJC published a report and put together three ballot proposals that passed in 2022. The proposals stated that the city’s constitution would strive for “a just and equitable city for all” ; create a permanent office of racial equity and chief equity officer; and promised a “true cost of living” measure for essential needs like housing, food, or childcare.

The NYC Mayor’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice (MOERJ) and the NYC Commission on Racial Equity (CORE), which is a 15-member independent oversight body for MOERJ, launched in October 2023 under former Mayor Eric Adams.

But in August 2025, CORE filed a lawsuit against the Adams administration for failure to adhere to deadlines in releasing the city’s mandated racial equity plan the previous year. A sign that President Donald Trump’s push for rollbacks to diversity and racial justice initiatives were in full swing. Legal reps for Adams at the time blamed the delays on several lawsuits threatening the city’s federal funding if the report were released.

Mamdani’s team pointedly promised to create and publish the preliminary racial equity plan within his administration’s first 100 days in office, which would be about mid-April.

“I think this work will inevitably be difficult, however, it has to be done,” said Mamdani in a brief sitdown with Amsterdam News.

Honoring MLK

The administration’s commitment to racial justice is underscored by its focus on the legacy of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. This comes as Trump has targeted Black history holidays, including removing King’s birthday and Juneteenth from the National Park Service’s list of free admission days. Trump also announced another attempt to withhold federal funding from “sanctuary cities” starting February 1, a challenge that has previously been blocked in court as unconstitutional.

Mamdani feels that Dr. King’s life and legacy are linked to the history of the city. He recalled visiting Cornerstone Baptist Church in Brooklyn on the campaign trail, understanding that it was where King spoke decades prior.

To celebrate the King holiday this year, Mamdani spent Jan. 19 with politicians and community leaders recounting the works of one of history’s great advocates for social justice, how to defend his commemorative day, and expressing the desire to implement the tenets of the Civil Rights Movement at the city level.

Mamdani added that the work of the racial justice office will focus on pressing issues, such as the exodus of Black and Brown New Yorkers who can no longer afford to live in the city, addressing the city’s gender pay gap and racial disparities in employment rates, building “truly affordable” housing citywide, and upholding reparations legislation at the city level.

“Oftentimes when we think about Dr. King, we forget a number of different parts of his legacy, and one of the quotes that I hold dear when thinking about him is, ‘what good is having the right to sit at a lunch counter, if you can’t afford to buy a hamburger?’” said Mamdani, ahead of attending the National Action Network (NAN) King Day of Service Public Policy Forum in Harlem.

“The importance of rights are not just that people have them, but that they can also exercise them. And as he would often make clear racial justice without economic justices is like clapping with one hand. This is an opportunity so that every New Yorker can climb,” said Mamdani.

His office has taken some steps forward already, like rolling out 2-care and more access to 3k universal childcare with the governor’s support; promising to protect peaceful protestors, especially those that encounter local and federal authorities; and standing with striking New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) nurses on the picket line at Montefiore, Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Morningside and West, and NewYork-Presbyterian hospitals this week.

“I think it only makes our commitment more urgent, frankly. A mark of your belief in a value is not when it is easy to practice it, but when it is hard. And what we see in Dr. King’s legacy is not just a vision for racial justice, not just a vision for economic justice, but also a vision for a country where dissent is not repressed, where it is actually understood as a critical part of the health of a nation,” said Mamdani. “
And I think that we saw, in his own lifetime, the way in which he had to deal with that kind of oppression. And let today be a day where we recommit ourselves to ensuring that the right to peacefully assemble is one that is given to each and every New Yorker, no matter who they are, no matter where they come from, no matter what it is that they’re advocating for.”

MOERJ also incorporates other equity offices, such as NYC Her Future (NHF), the NYC Commission on Gender Equity (CGE), the NYC Unity Project (UP), and the NYC Young Men’s Initiative (YMI) as well as multi-agency bodies like the NYC Pay Equity Cabinet (PEC) and the NYC Taskforce on Racial Inclusion & Equity (TRIE).

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