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Tiny town's first black mayor, locked out of office by white clique, wins in landslide [1]
['Rob Beschizza']
Date: 2025-08-29
When Patrick Braxton became mayor of Newbern, Alabama, population 138, the clique of white residents in charge locked him out of town hall. Braxton was the only candidate to file paperwork for a position passed around the clique for generations; they lost by default, then held an illegal special election to install Haywood Stokes III instead. Five years on, Braxton has prevailed in the town's first competitive election in sixty years, defeating auctioneer Laird Cole in a 61%-39% landslide. Which is to say, by 66 votes to 26.
Newbern's mayor-council government had not been put to a vote for six decades. Instead, town officials held "hand-me-down" positions, with each mayor appointing a successor who appointed the council members, according to the lawsuit filed by Braxton and others. The result was an overwhelmingly white government in a town where Black residents outnumber white residents 2-1. Braxton, a volunteer firefighter, qualified in 2020 to run for the nonpartisan position of mayor, and since he was the only candidate, he became the mayor-elect without an election. He then appointed a new town council, as other mayors have done. But the locks were changed at the town hall, and Braxton was denied access to the town's financial accounts. His lawsuit also alleged that outgoing council members held a secret meeting to set up a special election and "fraudulently reappointed themselves as the town council."
Perhaps the point was to give themselves time to burn the evidence. They ultimately made way for Braxton rather than fight his lawsuit, but by then only a year was left of his original term. Here's the Southern Poverty Law Center's Madison Hollon:
"Mayor Braxton's election represents a turning point for Newbern, restoring democratic governance, ensuring fair representation, and reaffirming that every resident has a voice in their local government."
Previously:
• Alabama Sheriff legally appropriated $750K from prison meal budgets to build himself a beach house, locked up his whistleblowing gardener
• Only in Alabama: the town that built a monument to the insect pest that destroyed It
• Giant monster-themed surf rock from Huntsville, Alabama
• Publisher of Alabama newspaper calls for the Klan to ride on DC with 'hemp ropes'
• Alabama's rural hospitals fear 'immediate' closure
• Alabama's rural hospitals fear 'immediate' closure
• Alabama bans lab-grown meat, following Florida's example
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