Civil Rights Attorney Michael Joseph, a first-generation Haïtien American and the first Black mayor to lead the city of North Miami in its 100-year history, was born on August 18, 1981, in Miami, Florida, at Jackson Memorial Hospital to Louis Joseph, a pastor, and Elvina Joseph, from Port-de-Paix, Haïti. He and his sister, Lucy Joseph, were reared in the Little River neighborhood in the city.
Joseph graduated from Miami Edison Senior High School in 1999, where he joined the 5000 Role Models of Excellence program, founded by Florida’s Congresswoman Frederica Wilson. Afterward, he enrolled in Florida International University and received a Bachelor of Business Administration in 2003, and two years later, in 2005, he earned a Master of Public Management. 2010 Joseph earned a Juris Doctorate from the Benjamin L. Crump Center for Social Justice at St. Thomas University College of Law. He holds membership in the Florida Bar and the American Bar Association.
In 2010, Joseph founded his firm, which provided legal services to South Florida’s disadvantaged community. His first big case was representing a prominent physician who successfully sued the city of Miramar, Florida, for his wrongful arrest by the city’s police.
In 2011, Joseph served as Vice-Chairman of the Miami-Dade County Small Business Advisory Board. During that year, he joined Galbut, Walters & Associates, a law firm representing clients in federal and state courts in civil rights litigation.
In 2015, Joseph and Asia Joseph were married at the Ancient Spanish Monastery, the oldest building in the Western Hemisphere. They are the parents of two sons, Alexander Joseph and David Joseph.
From 2018 to 2024, Joseph served as Commissioner of the North Miami Beach Commission, Seat 7, coordinating projects with the City Manager and Management Team overseeing a $155 million city budget and North Miami Beach Water, a utility providing drinking water to over 150,000 households. He was also a Miami-Dade County Commission on Human Rights member during this period. He has also led the city in exploring novel solutions to bring traffic congestion relief, such as the proposal by Elon Musk’s Boring Company for a 6.2-mile underground transit system.
In 2024, Joseph was elected mayor of North Miami Beach. He won the mayor’s post in this city of 43,000 over incumbent Evan Piper, who briefly held the seat after a special election was required after Governor Ron DeSantis removed former mayor Anthony DeFillipo from office for residency fraud.
As mayor, Joseph also heads the city commission, chairs all municipal meetings, and spearheads legislative policies and regulations affecting residents.
Mayor Michael Joseph receives numerous awards and accolades, including the Haitian Lawyers Association’s Special Recognition Honoree and the Miami Times’ “The Next Generation of Dreamers,” which has a special section highlighting the accomplishments of young adults in the South Florida community.
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Kate Duffy, “Elon Musk’s Boring Company has submitted a proposal for a 6.2-mile underground transit system in Miami,” https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/elon-musk-boring-company-north-miami-beach-loop-proposal-tesla-2022-2;
Penny Dickerson, “Michael Joseph fights for the people and wins,” https://www.miamitimesonline.com/news/michael-joseph-fights-for-the-people-and-wins/article_53404fc6-5970-11ea-bad4-b75b06f83b65.html;
Raisa Habersham, “Not a bad American dream story’: A changing North Miami Beach swears in first Black mayor,”https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article296804064.html.