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Newbern, Alabama is a small town. At it's heyday in the 1880s the population was 562. Today just about 150 people live there, with the population falling by 20% per decade for the past two decades.
It's a tiny town but there are residents who care about its future. One is Patrick Braxton, who started to question how the town was being run when working as a volunteer firefighter and during the early days of COVID.
The official leadership seemed unresponsive and even hostile.
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Newbern is majority black, but like many small towns in the Black Belt the town leadership is all white. Newbern has historically not had elections for Mayor--
Some residents from First Baptist Church of Newbern are fed up. Braxton among them. The small funds the Mayor controls are not spent with transparency. COVID supplies were squandered. When Patrick Braxton put up signs encouraging people to get vaccinated the signs were thrown in the burn heap.
So Braxton decided to run for mayor. 2/
There is a process to have mayoral elections, Patrick Braxton found the paperwork despite obstruction from the city council. The existing mayor Haywood “Woody” Stokes III ignored him and didn't bother to run so Braxton won by default managing to get recognized by the county. Then, shortly after, the white town council met secretly and reappointed (??) Haywood “Woody” Stokes III as Mayor. It's an old typical situation. Here's the best article I found:
Haywood “Woody” Stokes III
...
Haywood “Woody” Stokes III!
There is no way...