•

Black man who says he was elected mayor of Alabama town alleges that White leaders are keeping him from position

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/patrick-braxton-black-man-says-he-was-elected-mayor-of-newburn-alabama/

Patrick Braxton said that the "minority White residents of (Newburn), long accustomed to exercising total control over the government, refused to accept his election as mayor.

Black man who says he was elected mayor of Alabama town alleges that White leaders are keeping him from position

A Black man who says he was elected mayor of a rural Alabama town but has been kept from taking office by White leaders of the town has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit.

42 comments

MicroWave

•

Braxton said in the lawsuit, which CBS News reviewed, that Newbern had not held an election "for decades." Instead, "the office of mayor was 'inherited' by a hand-picked successor," and that mayor then chose town council members, again without an election. All prior mayors have been White residents, the lawsuit said, even though about 85% of Newbern's population is Black. Only one Black person has ever served on the town council.

Jackcooper

•

Inheriting political positions is literally anti-American. We fought a war over this. Fucking Alabama.

ed_cock

•

Braxton was allegedly the only person who qualified for the position of mayor, according to the lawsuit. Stokes "did not bother to qualify as a candidate," the lawsuit said, even though he knew Braxton was planning to run. No candidates qualified for town council positions, either.

Braxton was elected mayor by default, making him the first Black mayor of Newbern in the 165 years since the town was founded.

That's an important bit of context, they still didn't have a proper election.

themeatbridge

•

They did have a proper election. There was only one candidate, so he won. Then they had a second, improper election where only the previous council was allowed to qualify for office or vote.

ed_cock

•

Permanently Deleted

czech

•

Yes, I'm sure they haven't held an election in 165 years because the 85% black population all agreed it would just be a waste of time. Are you serous?

There actually was a regular election- the incumbents just declined to run a candidate against Braxton. Are you suggesting we should cast doubt on that result until the incumbents agree to qualify a candidate (so, never)?

ed_cock

•

Permanently Deleted

czech

•

What are you suggesting happened?

I'm suggesting that what happened with this election may have happened in the past.

When he approached Stokes for information about running for mayor, Stokes allegedly gave Braxton "wrong information about how to qualify" for the election, and did not provide public notice to residents about the election.

just weeks after his election, Stokes and his council members Gary Broussard, Jesse Donald Leverett, Voncille Brown Thomas and Willie Richard Tucker allegedly "met in secret to adopt a 'special' election ordinance." Notice of the meeting was not published, and the group set a special election for Oct. 6, 2020.

No notice of that election was ever published, according to the lawsuit. Because the election was not publicized, only Stokes and his council members qualified.

you wrote:

It sounds like everyone has just been completely apathetic to who's running the town, including the 85% black majority.

Does it? It actually sounds like a white minority council bends over backwards to keep themselves in power by ignoring opposition and holding private special elections.

What I mean by "regular" is the kind of election where people go out to vote for one of two or more candidates. Someone winning by default doesn't say much about what the people want, except that they, once again, don't seem to really care.

Don't confuse oppression with apathy.

Stokes and his council allegedly changed the locks for a third time, and according to the lawsuit, Braxton and his council have not had "uninterrupted access" to the building since April 2021. This meant that in November 2022, he could not help set up voting machines for Newbern's most recent election.

They will not let them hold elections. Read the article before you "innocently assume" these people "don't seem to really care".

ed_cock

•

Permanently Deleted

wolfpack86

•

I think the whole reason that they didn't field a candidate against Braxton is precisely to get people casting doubt on the a validity of "won by default".

There is a process to hold office, everyone has a pretty good idea of what that means. They can't plead ignorance.

zaph

•

There are a large number of local elections decided because only one person applied for the job and they don't have any issues like this.

ed_cock

•

Permanently Deleted

DeanFogg

•

Sounds fucky

vd1n

•

Small towns suck. Big towns suck. Cities suck. America sucks and it's not coming back.

Stovetop

•

it's not coming back.

Implying America was ever good at this in the first place.

md5crypto

•

I'm still waiting for all the America haters to move to Holland.

SuddenDownpour

•

The only people capable of fundamentally improving one's country are those willing to see what's wrong with it. The very country of the United States was founded by a bunch of people so mad about their country that they literally revolted.

Pratai

•

Permanently Deleted

andrewta

•

If this happened in 2021 and 2022 why wait till now to file a federal lawsuit?

Pandantic

•

No one would take his case.

Reliant1087

•

Not just that, the first lawyers he approached scammed him I think.

zencat

•

America needs free and reformed education and more psychedelics.

kklusz

•

Do you see either of those happening anytime soon?

Lemjukes

•

It's a shame, aside from all the racism, Newbern actually seems like a lovely little southern small town.

To clarify, this came in response to looking up Newbern on Google maps and seeing the only photo attached to the town is a group of smiling black women celebrating the 4th of July. If that's the representation of the town, it seems like a nice place.

I probably should have said more specifically 'aside from the racist white minority leadership it seems like it could be a really nice place.' Nice places can have shit leaders. Was happy to see the town hall already has some one star reviews in response to this story. Hopefully more attention will help them toss the bigots to the curb.

gravitas_deficiency

•

I dunno, man. The racism sounds like it’s one of the towns primary characteristics.

Jarmer

•

Yeah lol. You can’t really “aside from the racism” when that’s their primary focus.

Lemjukes

•

Pretty sure the more than %70 black/African American town population might disagree with you. Seems pretty unkind and disingenuous to paint a whole town as a shithole because some assholes are in charge.

Ensign_Crab

•

It’s a shame, aside from all the racism, Newbern actually seems like a lovely little southern small town.

"Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"

XaeroDegreaz

•

There's 130 people that live in that town. No one there really gives a flying

md5crypto

•

The real story is they don't even have a mayoral position, so a nothing story ginned to stoke hatred toward white people.

SuddenDownpour

•

They do have a mayor position, they just didn't care for it until someone decided to run for it.

shortgiraffe

•

Hating racists isn't the same as hating white people.

Sethayy

•

I can see why you're racist if you don't got the braincells to seperate a couple people from the population.

Its not anti white to hate people who happen to be white

betterdeadthanreddit

•

Disagreeing with those specific people for their actions is not the same as hatred for white people. An asshole is an asshole whether they're black, white or green.

Hextic

•

Fuck off, bot.