Alabama Town’s First Black Mayor, Who Had Been Locked Out of Office, Wins Election

Patrick Braxton, the first Black mayor of Newbern, Alabama, has won re-election by a significant margin, receiving 66 votes to his opponent's 26 in the town's first election since at least the 1960s. This election follows a contentious period when Braxton, after running unopposed in 2020, was locked out of town hall by white residents who refused to let him serve as mayor. The election was held under a federal settlement after Black residents sued, challenging what they called "hand-me-down governance" where mayors appointed their successors, resulting in predominantly white leadership despite the town's 2-to-1 Black majority.