An Alabama mayor and councilman with a long history of infighting on the city council traded verbal blows, physical threats, and allegations of racist insults during a town meeting.
Tarrant Mayor Wayman Newton and city councilmember Tommy Bryant quarreled during a meeting that marked just another altercation in a series of clashes between the two city leaders.
According to AL.com, Newton and Bryant have been at odds with each other for years since Newton was elected the town’s first Black mayor of Tarrant, a town nestled just outside Birmingham.
Their feud surfaced again in a Nov. 18 meeting that quickly devolved shortly after the council was seated to talk official city business.
This time, the fiery confrontation reportedly began with Newton’s ongoing effort to dismiss Tarrant Police Chief Wendell Major.
Newton previously accused Major of professional misconduct, alleging that he downgraded serious offenses, including homicides, and courted work as an attorney while simultaneously working as police chief in a town of 6,000 people.
This prompted Bryant to recapitulate a confrontation between himself and Newton in 2022 in which he punched the mayor for insulting his wife. Major was present during that assault.
“He went on to talk vulgar about what he was going to do to my wife and then I hit him,” Bryant said. “And the court, by the way, said, ‘not guilty.’ That was fighting words that any man that had any reasonable guts about him at all would have hit him.”
“So next time you call me a ‘boy,’ I’m going to follow that, and I’m going to hit you,” Newton shot back.
“You ain’t man enough to stand up to me,” Bryant, who is white, replied.
“Or better yet, why don’t you call me a n****r like you’ve been calling me,” Newton said in a room full of Tarrant citizens, adding that he’s been dealing with Bryant’s “shenanigans for four years.”
At that point, City Councilwoman Veronica Freeman tried to urge Bryant to end the exchange, insisting that the council should return to the meeting agenda. However, Bryant only continued, stating that the mayor “got mad” at him because he “might have insinuated that he was a homosexual.”
The disruption only ended after a member of the public intervened to question the relevance of the insults during an official meeting.
Watch the full exchange at the 07:00 mark below:
In Nov. 2022, a physical altercation between Bryant and Newton happened in the city hall parking lot after a contentious city council meeting. It was also caught on surveillance video.
Bryant’s attorney alleged that the mayor approached his client and repeatedly told him, “F*** you.”
Bryant replied, “I’m cheap tonight. Do you have a quarter?” to which Newton allegedly replied, “I prefer your wife. She is cleaned out. I won’t have to worry. I can nut all in it.”
Bryant, who is nearing 80 years old, then punched the mayor, striking him in the chin. The police chief, who witnessed the scuffle, immediately took Bryant into custody and charged him with third-degree assault. A bench trial later yielded a not-guilty verdict for the councilman, AL.com reported.
“The court is in the opinion that any ‘reasonable person’ would consider the words stated to the defendant regarding his wife as ‘fighting words,’’ the presiding judge wrote in her ruling.
This isn’t the first time Newton has launched accusations at Bryant for calling him racial slurs.
“While in 2023, my colleague still continues to use racial slurs such as the n-word and ‘boy’ when referring to African Americans, I stand ready to continue to work with Councilor John Tommy Bryant and the entire city council for the advancement of citizens and stakeholders of the City of Tarrant,’’ Newton said after Bryant’s trial came to a close.
Earlier this year, Tarrant residents filed an impeachment lawsuit against Newton, requesting the mayor be removed from office for incompetency, neglect of duty, and corruption in office.
It alleges city employees and citizens have been “in turmoil” since Newton was elected. The complaint claims the mayor used city funds, equipment, property, supplies, and employees for his personal business, paid family members for services with city funds without city council approval, and routinely canceled monthly council meetings without sufficient notice. No evidence to back the allegations was included in the suit, according to WBRC.
