A black man filed a federal civil rights lawsuit, claiming he was duly elected mayor of Alabama but was blocked from office by white community leaders.

Patrick Braxton, 57, claims that Newburn’s “white minority residents” refused to accept the results of the 2020 mayoral election, in which he, a black man, allegedly won.Braxton argued that instead of letting acting New Bern mayor Heywood Stokes III run for mayor, he worked with town council members to hold a special election and Stokes was re-elected mayor, CBS News. report.

A black man has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit, claiming he was elected mayor of a rural Alabama town but was blocked from doing so by the town’s white leaders. https://t.co/zMh4LEnI6w

— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 22, 2023

Mr Braxton also claimed that he had not held an election for “decades” before Mr Newbern was said to be victorious in 2020. Instead, he claimed that the mayoral office was “inherited by a handpicked successor” who appointed his own town council members, the newspaper reported.

Despite the fact that 85% of the town’s population is black, Braxton claimed that all previous mayors have been white and that only one black has ever served on New Bern’s town council.

Braxton said he consulted Stokes for information on how to run for mayor in 2020 out of concern that the needs of the black community were not being met. Braxton later claimed that Stokes had “misinformed” him about how to qualify for mayor and failed to tell residents he needed to announce the election.

However, despite allegedly receiving incorrect information, Braxton claims to have given city officials a candidacy letter and a qualifying money order. Braxton also claimed he was elected mayor by default because Stokes “did not bother to qualify as a candidate” when the election approached, even though he knew there was a challenger in Braxton. (Related: Supreme Court Destroys Alabama Legislative Map)

Braxton said he was told by county probate Judge Arthur Crawford that he could appoint his own city council members, as had been done in the previous administration, because no one else was qualified or elected to serve on the town council. Braxton asked both white and black residents to serve, but none of the white residents agreed to join him on the council, the media said.

Meanwhile, Stokes and the city council “met in secret to adopt a special election ordinance” and set a special election for Oct. 6, 2020, without public announcement of the election, CBS News reported. Braxton argued that only Stokes and his city council members were eligible for leadership roles in the town and were “virtually reappointed,” according to CBS News, as the election was allegedly not made public.

According to CBS News, the complaint states that “when confronted with the duly elected first black mayor and the majority black town council, all defendants took racially motivated actions to prevent the first black mayor from discharging the duties of their office and to prevent the first black majority black town council from exercising legislative power.”

Mr. Stokes and the city council have admitted to Mr. Braxton’s allegations and lawsuit that “plaintiff Patrick Braxton is black and former mayor of the town of New Bern.” Stokes and the city council also acknowledged that a special election had been held for a seat on the town council, but claimed that “Stokes became mayor of New Bern after plaintiff Braxton lost his job by operation of law,” CBS News reported.

The defendants did not specify which act of law drove Braxton out of office, the newspaper said.