First Black Mayor of One Alabama Town Claims He’s Locked Out of City Hall Transcript

It’s often a straightforward process in this country. You hold an election for office; a clear winner is declared, and that person assumes the position once the votes are counted and certified. But Newbern, Alabama, is a bit different. They haven’t held elections for years, with a position often handed down from father to son for multiple generations until one man went against the norm. And he says it’s led to him being blocked from his mayoral duties for years. Now the battle over who’s really in charge is at the center of a federal lawsuit as tensions run high. Our Steve Osunsami has the tail of two mayors.

Newbern, Alabama, is one of those small places in America where you’ll find nearly a dozen churches to worship the Lord but not a single grocery store. It’s barely a mile long with about 200 people. An old cotton town where the history of slavery still lives deep in the soil. Even the cemeteries are still racially segregated. This is where white people are buried, and over here is the dirt road that takes you to a hill where the descendants of former slaves still bury their dead today.

I’m not trying to divide the town, just want to make the town better.

For the first time ever, a child of those black ancestors has become the city’s mayor, hoping he can bring people together. But in a lawsuit he’s filed in federal court, he says that some of his white neighbors have kept him from the job and locked him out of office. And he’s seen here arguing with one of them outside the building, a city clerk who he and his black voters tried to persuade to their side, but failed.

What you are doing is unjust.

No, it’s not.

It is. It’s absolutely unjust. It’s unjustified by this gentleman, and it’s unjustified by the people of this town.

Do you feel cheated?

Oh, yeah.

Do you feel discriminated against?

Yes.

What is it that you want to see happen?

I want to take my rightful seat and I want to hold each and every one of them accountable for what they did.

56-year-old Patrick Braxton was born and raised here and became the city’s first black mayor in 2020 when he quietly filed the paperwork at this county courthouse to run for the position, up until that year, no one had ever officially put in for the job.

(02:28)
How many years has this place gone without an election?

I think they said about 60 something.

So then how was the mayor decided here?

Just handed down, handed down.

And let me guess, what was the race of this mayor in this town? What’s it always been?

White.

Yeah. Every single time.

Yes.

The mayor at the time was this man, Haywood Stokes III. His father, Haywood Stokes Jr., who died 10 years ago, was the mayor before. And in a response to the federal lawsuit, he and his lawyers admit that the town of Newbern has not held an election for years prior to decide who leads their city, but they deny that there’s any racism or a conspiracy here to keep black people out of office. He and Patrick Braxton are both volunteers at the fire station on Main Street. They’ve known each other for more than a decade. So it was a shock to everyone when the legal deadline had passed to run for the job. And this time, a black man, Patrick Braxton, had gone through the trouble of filing the proper paperwork and was the one and only candidate. Months later, he was seen here being sworn into office by a state judge, and like previous mayors before him, he appointed his own city council, who put their hands on the Bible that same warm evening.

We was very excited. We had one meeting.

You did have a meeting in City Hall.

One, yes.

We got chance to come in and-

Try to get organized.

Tried to organize what, you know? That was it.

They say it felt good in a town where 85% of the residents are black to finally have a city council that looked more like the people they serve.

(04:05)
So you met the former mayor Woody after you were sworn in.

Yes.

And there didn’t appear to be any problems.

No problem.

He said, Here are the keys?

Yeah.

And that’s it?

That’s it. And walked off.

So now you have a meeting at City Hall. When did the doors get locked?

Well, we don’t know.

I guess the next day, we don’t know exactly when. I guess they knew we was there.

Can you imagine? It is a city hall. It is the town hall, and it’s locked forever. It’s been locked for two years now. I feel that it’s all about race, and I don’t mind saying that that’s what it’s about because I’ve lived here all my life.

According to their lawsuit, they’re also locked out of the city’s accounts at this bank on the other side of the county. Meanwhile, the Black City Council members say that the old city council continues to collect taxes, pay the lawn crews, and somehow conduct regular business.

(05:02)
Do you even know who’s holding the meetings?

No.

No. And they must be holding it in a private home.

You may hang up or press one for more options.

We tried more than once to get the former mayor’s side of the story. Knocking on his door when it appeared he was home, he didn’t answer. In court filings, Woody III explains his position, accusing Mayor Braxton of living outside the city limits, which would disqualify Braxton from being the mayor. And it is true that Mayor Braxton has more than one home, one that he uses as his city residence that he rents, and this one where he lives with his family outside the city. Here’s where it gets more complicated. Mr. Woody Stokes is arguing that he gets to hold onto the job because of a special election, he claims was held in October to vote on the New City Council weeks before the Black City Council was sworn in, where only the old city council members qualified to run, and because of that, kept their jobs.

(06:03)
He says his old city council put him back in charge. But in his lawsuit, Mayor Braxton says that his side didn’t even know that a special election was happening and says that if it did, it was no good. Saying that it took place in secret and that no notice of a special election was ever published.

You all just need to go on and leave us alone.

Because there’s not a story here.

We went to the Mercantile store, a small diner across the street from the town hall, a place that black residents say is ground zero for Mayor Braxton’s opposition. We were told to leave the room.

You just need to go on and leave us alone. It’s going to be a black and white thing, and y’all know it.

If you’re living and you’re working here and someone can make your life living hell, it can really affect you, your family. You will be quiet.

On our walk with the mayor. The few white residents we met who support him were only comfortable telling us so off camera.

You see what I’ve been trying to tell you?

Yeah, yeah. That people are afraid. Of what?

I don’t know what it is. They’re friends, who are going to stop speaking to them.

One small exception was the kind woman working at the town’s new library who didn’t really want to take a side.

I think it’s very unfortunate for the town of Newbern to have to go through this conflict, and I’m hoping that people will listen to each other, and be graceful with each other, and come together as the Newbern community.

LaQuenna Lewis has become sort of a political activist who works with the mayor.

(07:40)
Who’s everyone afraid of around here?

You tell me. Power. The power structure.

These are some of the frightening letters filled with racial slurs that she says she’s gotten in the mail.

This is why I just can’t say it’s not race. I received a lot of hate mail that referenced lynchings, and name-calling, referenced my children. So this is personal for me, and this is serious. This isn’t a game, and obviously people want it to go away.

One of the white residents who we saw in the restaurant, he said, “You guys are just going to make it about race.” What do you say to that?

Look at the deck of cards. It’s not necessarily about race, but we have to admit and be honest that race does play a small factor in this.

I feel so guilty. Really, I do. Because we have allowed this to happen to us-

To happen to us.

… for years and years. We allowed it to happen. Nobody, I’ve never known a black man, even if it was a white man being elected mayor here in Newbern, I’ve never known that. And we should have said something, done something, see could we get some help from somewhere, but we didn’t.

Why?

And that’s what I asked myself, why?

The mayor, who, according to a state court, is still this man, wants the state or federal court to come to town and make things right, but if they don’t, he says he’s not going away and that there will be a real election when his term is up. He has big hopes to finally bringing a grocery store. It’s high time, he says, for black folks in small towns like his to start claiming a little more agency over their own lives.

(09:48)
It has to disappoint you that it’s along racial lines.

Yes, because one little lady told me the town wasn’t ready for a black mayor.

Someone told you that?

Yes.

Was it a white lady who told you that?

Yes.

The town wasn’t ready for a black mayor.

Yes.

What did you say to her?

They better get ready because I’m here.