The first elected and first black Newbern, Alabama Mayor has not been able to carry out his duties leading the town because white city officials have blocked his efforts for three years.

#BlackStarNetwork partner:
Fanbase 👉🏾 https://www.startengine.com/offering/...

Patrick Braxton assumed office by default in 2020 when he filed for office, and no one else, including the incumbent, did the same. Previous Newbern mayors had been appointed or ran unopposed, with several serving for more than ten years. Many residents did not know they were allowed to have elections.

Braxton has an ongoing lawsuit alleging the white town leaders arranged an illegal and secret special election preventing Braxton from appointing a majority-Black town council and Newbern voters from electing their candidate of choice for town council.

Newbern is about 77 miles southwest of Birmingham, and its population is about 80% Black and 20% white. However, the town's leadership, except for Braxton and his town council, has been majority white for years.
The Legal Defense Fund has filed a preliminary injunction to force Newbern to hold elections and allow its citizens to vote for the first time in years.
Morenike Fajana, Senior Counsel of LDF joins us from New with the details of the bizarre case.

Join this channel to get access to perks:
   / @rolandsmartin  

Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered Venmo ☛https://venmo.com/rmunfiltered Zelle ☛ [email protected]

Annual or monthly recurring #BringTheFunk Fan Club membership via paypal ☛ https://rolandsmartin.com/rmu-paypal/

Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com

#RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.