The town of Newbern saw white officials deny its first Black mayor, Patrick Braxton, from exercising his duties for three years

The town of Newbern saw white officials deny its first Black mayor, Patrick Braxton, from exercising his duties for three years

The town of Newbern, Alabama, has not had a political election in the last several decades. But that could all change this November if a new motion is successful.

The Legal Defense Fund (LDF), an organization that focuses on racial and civil rights, along with an Alabama-based private law firm, filed a preliminary injunction to force Newbern, a town of about 133 people, to hold elections and allow its citizens to vote for the first time in years.

The town, about an hour and a half away from Montgomery, captured national attention last summer, after white officials had refused for three years to allow Patrick Braxton, the first Black mayor in Newbern’s history, to exercise his mayoral duties.

Newbern is about 80% Black and 20% white, but the town’s leadership, with the exception of Braxton and his town council, has been majority white for years. The defendants in the lawsuit, including the previous mayor and council, have refused to hold elections.

  • kescusay@lemmy.world
    136·
    8 months ago

    I remember first hearing about Braxton a couple years ago, when he still hadn’t actually managed to take office. (And the racist fuckers down there are still fighting him on it). The amazing thing was that until Braxton, the office of the mayor was inherited. The town leadership was quite literally landed gentry, operating a miniature feudalistic society.

      • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.worldEnglish
        162·
        8 months ago

        No it is a minority, they just happen to be very spread out and vocal. And our system of government was setup to give them a massively oversized voice on the national scale.

  • sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz
    66·
    8 months ago

    The defendants, listed as former mayor Haywood “Woody” Stokes III and his town council, held a secret, special election, preventing Braxton from appointing his town council. During their special election, the previous town council re-elected themselves, and ultimately reappointed the previous town mayor. They were aided, the lawsuit alleges, by the town’s bank and clerk. Newbern has effectively had two mayors since 2020.

    I thought the FBI came in when these fucking inbreds pulled shit like this.

  • ikidd@lemmy.worldEnglish
    28·
    8 months ago

    Unincorporate it and the county can tax their asses and give them nothing in return.

  • RunawayFixer@lemmy.world
    7·
    8 months ago

    It all reads like an onion skit, but it’s real. Braxton was officially made mayor in 2020 and now 4y later still has no access to the town’s official bank account, post box or even a key to the town hall. How can an ongoing crime that is this blatant, take years to resolve? Alabama I guess.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/26/black-mayor-alabama-town-locked-out

    The reason that it’s in the news again, is because mayor Braxton and a civil rights organisation are trying to have an actual election take place, which probably isn’t easy to organise if you don’t control the town’s postbox. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/29/newbern-alabama-election-lawsuit-mayor

    So after 4 years of this, the anti democratic cliques still haven’t faced any negative consequences for their clearly illegal power grab. Completely insane, I would not have expected this to be possible in any western democracy.