547
submitted 7 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

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.

top 18 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] kescusay@lemmy.world 152 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 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.

[-] Dreizehn@kbin.social 88 points 7 months ago

Alabama is filled with backward ass POS racists.

[-] PunnyName@lemmy.world 24 points 7 months ago
[-] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 27 points 7 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.

[-] PunnyName@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

"Much" still applies. As in "too much" of the US is a bunch of bigoted assholes.

[-] mightyfoolish@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

Perhaps a minority by population (I doubt this myself) but a majority by surface area (which matters a lot in federal elections).

[-] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

Yeah the whole effectively "land" votes system we use is a relic of colonization and needs to be destroyed.

[-] Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world 36 points 7 months ago

Conservatism is a plague of racism and oppression. It always has been.

Conservatives need to go to prison in this case. Where is the FBI?

[-] Maeve@kbin.social 7 points 7 months ago

Marching with the proud boys, et al.

[-] ikidd@lemmy.world 33 points 7 months ago

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

[-] derf82@lemmy.world 15 points 7 months ago

But Chief Justice John Roberts assured us racism was over when he gutted the voting rights act. /s

[-] Assman@sh.itjust.works 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)
[-] ninjabard@lemmy.world 16 points 7 months ago

The town. Not the mayor.

[-] vanquesse 13 points 7 months ago

It's the town that's 80% black, not the mayor. Which is then put in contrast with the majority white town leadership.

[-] Alto@kbin.social 7 points 7 months ago

The town, as in 20% of the residents of Newbern are whire.

[-] Assman@sh.itjust.works 5 points 7 months ago

Haha that's what I get for skimming the article

[-] geogle@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago

That's the town's demographics silly, not Braxton.

[-] hedgehogging_the_bed@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago

The town's population is only 20% white, not the mayor.

this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2024
547 points (100.0% liked)

News

23367 readers
2635 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS