The first Black mayor of a rural Alabama town has taken a landslide victory this week in a mayoral election – four years after white residents locked him out of the town hall and refused to let him serve.
Incumbent Mayor Patrick Braxton was elected as mayor of Newbern, after the town voted 66 to 26 in his favor. The win comes after a long-running dispute that eventually led to a lawsuit, in which Braxton accused town leaders of racial discrimination.
“The people came out and spoke and voted,” Braxton told KTLA5 Wednesday night after his win. “Now, there ain’t no doubt what they want for this town.”
There are just 133 people in Newbern and the 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 non-partisan position of mayor. 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 when he won Braxton was locked out of the town hall, barred from opening the municipal mailbox and never given access to the management of the town’s finances. His lawsuit also alleged that outgoing council members held a secret meeting to set up a special election and “fraudulently re-appointed themselves as the town council.”
In July 2024, District Judge Kristi K. DuBose approved an agreement – filed by the town and Braxton – that allowed him to begin his first term, which was then three and a half years after the feud had started.
“I didn’t get a chance to serve but one year out of the five years,” said Braxton, who finally occupied the office last year following the three-year legal battle.
Any wrongdoing has been denied by town officials, who argued in court filings that Braxton’s claim to be mayor was “invalid.”
A mayoral election in 2025 was also promised in the settlement agreement. Braxton had a challenger this time — an auctioneer and realtor, Laird Cole.
Braxton said his victory should remove any “doubts people had hanging in their heads on if people want me,” adding that “it feels good the second time.”
