A prominent civil rights law firm has joined a motion seeking immediate action against Newbern, Alabama, as part of a federal lawsuit filed in 2023 that claims white officials in the majority-Black town have unfairly stayed in power by manipulating the voting process.
The lawsuit, filed in March 2023 by Alabama-based Quinn, Connor, Weaver, Davis, & Rouco LLP, and later joined by the Legal Defense Fund with an updated complaint in September 2023, claims that white officials systematically hijacked the democratic process for many decades, allowing them to maintain complete control in the town where 80 percent of the residents are Black.
The town has a population of around 200 residents who are only 20 percent white, however, white people have always managed to hold the majority, if not all, of the seats on the town council.
The lawsuit, Braxton et al., v. Stokes et al., was filed on behalf of Newbern’s first Black Mayor and now lead plaintiff, Patrick Braxton, who took office nearly four years ago by default because he was the only one who filed to run for mayor.
His predecessor, Haywood “Woody” Stokes III, who is named as a defendant in the legal action, along with his all-white handpicked town council, didn’t mount a challenge to Braxton at the time, breaking with long-held tradition.
But when Braxton won the vote, the white officials staged a fake special election to block the new mayor from appointing a mostly Black town council, and took other covert actions that prevented voters from choosing preferred council members.
Last week, Braxton requested a preliminary injunction in the lawsuit, urging the court to force the white officials to hold elections in November so that Black Newbern residents can exercise their constitutional right to vote before a final ruling is issued in the matter.
The injunction would immediately enable Black residents to vote in a general election for the first time in years, while preventing further racial discrimination until the court reaches a final conclusion.
The suit claims the white town officials illegally overturned Braxton’s 2020 appointment and quickly reelected themselves while reinstalling Stokes as mayor, which led to an awkward arrangement in which Braxton and Stokes have been serving in a dual role for nearly four years.
Before Braxton, previous mayors in Newbern were either appointed or ran unopposed, while some of these public officials held office for more than a decade at a time, consolidating power for generations of white residents.
The suit claims that Black residents of Newbern were completely unaware that they had the right to vote in elections for mayor, and still remain confused about who the actual elected mayor is.
“In failing to hold or give notice to residents for municipal elections, Newbern officials have continually prevented residents from electing representatives and holding office. It is imperative that the courts step in to ensure Newbern residents can fairly and fully exercise their fundamental right to vote,” said a statement from Richard Rouco, one of the co-counsels for the plaintiff.
The racial tensions in the town made national headlines last summer as Braxton continued to grapple with overt racism, his tenure besieged by daily harassment and intimidation that have prevented him from governing the town effectively.
Last year, Braxton expressed frustration with the situation, saying his white counterparts were “so stuck in their ways and don’t want nothing else for the town. They just want it to stay the same,” Braxton said, according to the Guardian. “I hope they break and just go ahead and release everything to me. If not, we’ll just go to court.”
Braxton said the racism he’s encountered is just the tip of the iceberg as Black voters in Newbern have faced a lifetime of discrimination whenever and whereever they’ve tried to cast ballots or run for office in the rural town, which is an hour-and-a-half west of Montgomery.
“As a lifelong resident of Newbern, I firmly believe in the importance of exercising my right to vote,” he said. “For decades, officials in my town have excluded me and other voters from participating in elections and having a say in what happens here.”
Braxton emphasized that voter participation would be crucial for reshaping the community and that Black people deserved a voice in determining the city’s future:
“Voting is not a privilege; it is a responsibility in helping to shape the direction and priorities of our community. We want to ensure our voices are heard and votes are counted. We ask the courts to enforce elections in Newbern this November so that we can cast our ballots and actively participate in the democratic process.”
Until 2020, Newbern had not held a mayoral election in decades, the plaintiffs claim.
The Legal Defense Fund was founded by Thurgood Marshall in 1940 and was originally part of the NAACP before it became an independent entity. The organization has been involved in many landmark civil rights cases, including Brown v. Board of Education, which led to the desegregation of public schools in the United States.
