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.
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.
Inheriting political positions is literally anti-American. We fought a war over this. Fucking Alabama.
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.
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.
Legally yes, but part of the article makes it sound like there was a regular election between two candidates with everything you expect and the winner is being denied. That’s not the case and we don’t know how the citizens actually feel about this. It did, after all, take decades for someone to do this.
Not that any of this should have ever happened in the first place, they should have just run the elections normally.
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)?
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?
What are you suggesting happened? Nobody seemed to give a shit for decades even though the situation seems clearly in favour of whoever actually decides to go through the official channels. It sounds like everyone has just been completely apathetic to who’s running the town, including the 85% black majority.
There actually was a regular election
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.
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”.
I don’t see how a small group like that could truly oppress them, especially in an age where everything can easily be documented with video proof and when this case seem clear cut. Someone could have done this ten or twenty years ago. Running a small campaign on the platform of “fuck those racists” should be simple enough in a town with an 85% black majority, but that wasn’t even necessary here because that clique’s so dumb.
Anyway, I’ve made my point, you can have the last word.
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.
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.
Yes, but in this case a different (much dumber) system had been established for decades without objection it seems. That’s different than just having regular, official elections with just one candidate, which is what they should have done in the first place. We don’t know who would have won if it was a normal, two-candidate election.
This going to court is a good thing because a) anyone could have filed the paperwork and won by default, including someone who would abuse the position and be really terrible for the town and b) this is certainly the end of the unofficial-official system they’ve had and might bring bad stuff to light. But keep in mind that the article’s coming on very strong because they mostly cite the prosecution.
Sounds fucky
Small towns suck. Big towns suck. Cities suck. America sucks and it’s not coming back.
it’s not coming back.
Implying America was ever good at this in the first place.
I’m still waiting for all the America haters to move to Holland.
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.
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If this happened in 2021 and 2022 why wait till now to file a federal lawsuit?
No one would take his case.
Not just that, the first lawyers he approached scammed him I think.
America needs free and reformed education and more psychedelics.
Do you see either of those happening anytime soon?
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.
I dunno, man. The racism sounds like it’s one of the towns primary characteristics.
Yeah lol. You can’t really “aside from the racism” when that’s their primary focus.
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.
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?”
The real story is they don’t even have a mayoral position, so a nothing story ginned to stoke hatred toward white people.
They do have a mayor position, they just didn’t care for it until someone decided to run for it.
Hating racists isn’t the same as hating white people.
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.
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There’s 130 people that live in that town. No one there really gives a flying
