For three years, Patrick Braxton says he has experienced harassment and intimidation after becoming the first Black mayor in Newbern, Alabama.

For three years, Patrick Braxton says he has experienced harassment and intimidation after becoming the first Black mayor in Newbern, Alabama.

  • HarkMahlberg@kbin.social
    11·
    1 year ago

    “When I first became mayor, [a white woman told me] the town was not ready for a Black mayor,” Braxton recalls.

    The town is 85% Black

    This would be comical if the following weren’t so depressing.

    Braxton, who was off duty at the time, overheard an emergency dispatch call for a Black woman experiencing a heart attack. He drove to the fire station to retrieve the automated external defibrillator, or AED machine, but the locks were changed, so he couldn’t get into the facility. He raced back to his house, grabbed his personal machine, and drove over to the house, but he didn’t make it in time to save her.

    I have more respect for this one man than I have for 15% of that town.

    • HarkMahlberg@kbin.social
      14·
      1 year ago

      Oh I spoke too soon! It gets worse!

      For at least 60 years, there’s never been an election in the town. Instead, the mantle has been treated as a “hand me down” by the small percentage of white residents…

      I’ll never need to explain what institutional racism is ever again. I just need to link this article.