Newbern, Alabama Will Hold First Election Since 1965
A federal judge signed off Tuesday on the settlement agreement reached in Newbern, Alabama in Mayor Patrick Braxton’s case, officially giving him all mayoral powers and privileges after being blocked from office by the previous white town leaders.
“This victory marks a new chapter for Newbern,” Braxton said in a statement. “I am so grateful to finally get to serve the people of Newbern. This is a win for not only me, but for all of the residents of Newbern.”
In addition to forcing Braxton’s predecessors to give him access to official documents and allow him into the town hall, which they physically locked him out of, the settlement agreement establishes that the town will hold its first election since 1965 next year.
“After decades, we will finally be able to act as citizens to cast our ballots and actively participate in the democratic process,” Braxton said. “I look forward to working together with the city council and town residents to move forward and shape our collective future.”
Learn more about the case here.
Previous update, June 24
The Black mayor of Newbern, Alabama will finally lead his town after being blocked from entering office by his white predecessors, pending a signature from a federal judge on a settlement agreement both parties reached last week.
The settlement declares Patrick Braxton as the “lawful mayor of Newbern,” and grants him all the powers, duties, privileges and “all other rights enjoyed by prior mayors and entrusted to the mayor of Newbern under Alabama state law.”
Under the agreement, the defendants in the case — previous mayor Haywood Stokes and his town council members — must immediately grant Braxton access to all official documents, accounts and town property needed to perform his job.
The next scheduled municipal election will take place in 2025, and Braxton will be up for reelection then.
Going forward, the town of Newbern must submit future changes related to voting and eligibility to vote in municipal elections to the federal district court or the U.S. Attorney General for approval until January 1, 2030.
The parties agreed to hold a public town meeting at the Newbern Town Hall by August 30 to provide residents with all of this information.
Braxton filed his lawsuit in November 2022, alleging that outgoing mayor Haywood Stokes and his town council locked him out of the town hall and did not allow him to perform his mayoral duties.
Newbern, a small majority-Black town, has not had a mayoral election in almost 60 years and instead has the current mayor appoint the next mayor. However, Braxton wanted to change that and filed for candidacy in 2020.
Since no one else, including the sitting mayor, filed to run in the election, Braxton became mayor-elect in July 2020 and appointed his own council members.
Braxton argued that Stokes did not file for candidacy because he knew he would lose the election.
Then, Stokes and his council members held a special election on Oct. 6, 2020, without notifying all of the town residents, resulting in the all-white group being elected.
In his lawsuit, Braxton said the defendants engaged in intentional racial discrimination by refusing to let Black residents participate in local elections or hold local office, violating the First and 14th Amendments.
In March, Braxton filed a motion asking the court to require the town’s white leaders to allow him into office immediately, so he didn’t have to wait until the scheduled trial in September, but the court denied it in May.
In the settlement filed on Friday, the parties agreed that “an ambiguity exists in the Alabama Code with respect to how a mayor should fill town council positions when all town council positions are vacant.” They agreed that Braxton should submit names to the governor of Alabama – who is currently Gov. Kay Ivey (R) — who will then fill the positions.
Both the plaintiffs and the town agreed that its failure to administer elections violates the law.
The town leaders violated the 15th Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and they violated people’s right to vote under the First and 14th Amendments, according to the settlement.
Despite this, the previous town leaders said in the agreement that they “specifically deny having engaged in any wrongful practice, or other unlawful conduct,” but they approved the settlement “to avoid further protracted adversarial proceedings and to fully and finally end strife and disagreement.”
Additionally, the town of Newbern is required to pay Braxton’s attorneys $25,000 and the Newbern town attorney around $15,000 under the agreement.
The white town leaders in Newbern, Alabama, who allegedly locked the Black mayor out of the town hall, are now claiming that he doesn’t have the right to sue them under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
Patrick Braxton argued in a November 2022 complaint that after he was lawfully elected as mayor of Newbern, the white outgoing mayor Haywood Stokes and his town council changed the locks to the town hall, removed or destroyed town documents and denied Braxton access to the town’s mailbox and bank account.
Braxton and his five council members claimed that these actions and Newbern’s practice of refusing to hold mayoral elections violates Section 2 of the VRA, which bans voting laws, practices or maps that curtail or take away someone’s right to vote due to their race. This section is often used to challenge laws that have a discriminatory impact.
In response to Braxton’s third amended complaint in the case, Stokes and his town council members said in a May 20 filing that his “Voting Rights claim is not a valid course of action for a private citizen.”
Republicans in courts across the country are arguing that private parties cannot sue under this section of the VRA and that only the U.S. attorney general can sue regarding perceived violations of the act.
Three federal circuit courts have ruled that private citizens do have the right to sue, including the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over Alabama.
This is the first time that Stokes and other defendants have brought up this specific point in their argument that they should stay in power in Newbern.
Newbern, a majority-Black town with only 133 residents, has not had a mayoral election in almost 60 years, and instead, the town has a hand-me-down system where the current mayor appoints the next mayor.
Since no one else officially filed for office before the election deadline, Braxton became mayor-elect on July 22, 2020, which is the protocol under Alabama law, and he selected five Black residents to join his town council.
Braxton argued in his first amended complaint that Stokes did not file for candidacy because he “knew or reasonably believed that he would not prevail in an election for the office of Mayor against Braxton.”
Then, without notifying any of the town residents, Stokes and his council members decided to hold a special election on Oct. 6, 2020, resulting in the all-white group being elected.
Braxton and the other plaintiffs argued that the defendants engaged in intentional racial discrimination by refusing to let Black residents participate in local elections or hold local office, violating the First and 14th Amendments.
In March 2024, around a year and a half after the case began, the plaintiffs filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to allow Braxton, the lawful mayor, to hold office while the case is being litigated.
In their response to the motion for a preliminary injunction, Stokes and the town council argued that the plaintiffs waited more than a year and four months to file the motion after their first complaint, so they can’t show they’ll “suffer imminent, irreparable harm” if the court doesn’t grant the motion.
The federal court referenced this argument as one of the reasons why it was denying Braxton’s motion. To be granted a preliminary injunction, a party must prove that there would be imminent and irreparable harm if it was not granted.
The judge said that they would likely succeed on the merits of their legal and constitutional claim, but that is not enough for relief to be granted before the September trial.
For now, Braxton and his council members will not be able to govern Newbern as Stokes and the other town leaders physically prevent them from taking office and try to weaken their case by claiming they don’t even have the right to sue.