Patrick Braxton said that the "minority White residents of (Newburn), long accustomed to exercising total control over the government, refused to accept his election as mayor.
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.
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.
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.
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.