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Patrick Braxton, the 57-year-old elected Black former Mayor of a small town called Newbern in Alabama, has recently sued his white predecessor and other members of the Town Council in a federal lawsuit. He alleged that the minority white population in the town unfairly blocked him from serving his term and taking office.
On August 7, @TizzyEnt on X (formerly Twitter) shared a video on the matter, which was originally posted on TikTok by The Justice Guy, aka @matteo_il_pazzeo, on July 29, 2023. In the video, Matteo narrated how Patrick was wrongfully removed from his position as the duly elected Mayor and was locked out of Newbern's Town Hall for being Black.
Matteo called it a story of systemic racism in the United States. In his lawsuit, Patrick Braxton is suing the previous white Mayor, Haywood Stokes III, along with Gary Broussard, Jesse Donald Leverett, Voncille Brown Thomas, Willie Richard Tucker, Lynn Thiebe, and People’s Bank of Greensboro.
All these people are, respectively, the new self-appointed and self-installed Mayor and Town Council. Patrick is suing them not only for denying his rights but also for denying the rights of every resident in Newbern to have a duly elected Mayor.
Patrick Braxton was the first elected Black Mayor in Newbern, Alabama
Matteo said that traditionally the Mayor of Newbern in Alabama has been handpicked by the Town Council. One important thing to note here is that Newbern’s Town Council only had one Black member throughout its history, even though 85% of the town’s population is Black. So, it is not surprising that Newbern never had a Black Mayor before Patrick Braxton.
In 2020, Patrick decided to run against the incumbent Mayor, Haywood Stokes III. Beating the odds, he won because, at the time. Haywood did not provide the residents of Newbern with a public notice necessary to let them know that there would be an actual election that year and that the Town Council wouldn’t handpick the Mayor.
Another reason Patrick won against Haywood was that he qualified for the election, whereas Haywood didn’t. It caused Patrick to win by default and be declared the Mayor by a judge. Patrick Braxton became the first Black Mayor in the 165 years of history of the town.
Once he was named Mayor, Patrick started appointing council members and asked both Black and white residents of Newbern to be part of the council. Only the Black members accepted.
But that is when, according to the lawsuit, the all-white Town Council held a secret meeting. They issued an election ordinance overnight, essentially reappointing themselves and ignoring the Town Council that Patrick was assembling.
That self-appointed council then claimed an unspecified operation flaw and decided to reappoint Haywood as Mayor, declaring that Patrick Braxton had lost his position as the elected Mayor.
They did not stop there, as immediately after forcibly installing themselves, the all-white Town council and Haywood decided to change the locks of the Town Hall. It physically locked Patrick Braxton out. He also had no access to the town’s PO box because the postmaster appointed by the all-white council did not allow him to do so.
Patrick and his council were also unable to access government documents, bank statements or records, or any other information required to discharge their duties.
In the meantime, the self-appointed Mayor Haywood and his all-white Town Council wasn’t even holding meetings in a public gathering in the Town Hall. They were meeting in private residences. This has been happening in Newbern, Alabama, since 202
Netizens are furious at the racism in Newbern
After watching the video shared by @TizzyEnt, people have been asking why nothing has been done about the situation over the past three years. They pointed out the evident racism that was still being practiced in Newbern.
At the end of the video, Matteo asked viewers about how the 14th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act have eradicated systemic racism from the United States, rhetorically implying that it was still very much prevalent in the country.
