Editing Newbern, Alabama (section)

==History==
The area was originally known as Cane Brake due to the large number of [[canebrake]]s in the area. The earliest known settler came to the area in 1816. The first grist mill was built in 1818, and the first store in 1829.<ref name="history">{{Cite news |last=Kaetz |first=James |date=March 27, 2023 |title=Newbern |work=[[Encyclopedia of Alabama]] |url=https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/newbern/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240515194738/https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/web/20240515194738/https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/newbern/ |archive-date=2024-05-15 |access-date=June 19, 2024}}</ref>

F.A. Borden built the first post office in 1832, and became the first postmaster. Two of Borden's brothers came from North Carolina in 1834, and bought most of the land in the area. They organized a town named after [[New Bern, North Carolina]]. It incorporated in 1854. A railway running from [[Uniontown, Alabama|Uniontown]] to Newbern started operation in 1859.<ref name="history" />

The [[9th Alabama Infantry Regiment]] was organized in the town in November 1861, to fight in the [[American Civil War]]. People from the town also fought in the Fifth, Eleventh, and Twentieth regiments. The town's economy was centered around [[sharecropping]] until the [[Great Depression]].<ref name="history" />

The [[Rural Studio]] of [[Auburn University]] was created in 1993.<ref name="history" />

===Mayoral dispute===
Patrick Braxton was the only person to file to run in the 2020 mayoral election, with incumbent mayor Woody Stokes III failing to file. Jude Arthur Crawford, the election official for [[Hale County, Alabama|Hale County]], informed Braxton that he won by default and would need to appoint a city council due to there being no candidates in the local elections. Braxton was the first black mayor and appointed the first majority black council in the town's history. Braxton received the key to town hall from Stokes, but all of the records had been removed from the building.<ref name="lock">{{Cite news |last=Walker |first=Adria |date=August 26, 2023 |title=He became the first Black mayor of a rural Alabama town. Then a white minority locked him out |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/26/black-mayor-alabama-town-locked-out |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240515192948/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/26/black-mayor-alabama-town-locked-out |archive-date=2024-05-15 |access-date=June 19, 2024}}</ref>

Braxton changed the locks to the building as Stokes gave keys out to friends. However, Stokes changed the locks and locked Braxton and the city council out of the town hall. Stokes and his allies refused to acknowledge Braxton as mayor and restricted his access to city mail and funds.<ref name="lock" />

Before Braxton was sworn in as mayor, Stokes and the city council held a secret meeting in which they held a special election and declared themselves the winners by default ten days later. No notice of the election was published. Stokes claims that they were "attempting to rectify a decades-old mistake by holding a special election". This council held meetings without Braxton's knowledge and removed him as mayor and appointed Stokes to replace him.<ref name="lock" />

Braxton and his city council filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in November 2022, stating that Stokes and his allies were conspiring to prevent him from governing the town due to his race. Braxton and his allies requested a special election to occur alongside the 2024 presidential election, but Judge [[Kristi DuBose]] ruled against them although she stated that they were "likely to succeed on the merits of their constitutional claim". A bench trial is scheduled for September.<ref name="lock" /><ref name="lock2">{{Cite news |last=Hedgepeth |first=Lee |date=June 5, 2023 |title=He became the first Black mayor of Newbern, Alabama. A white minority locked him out of town hall. |work=Tread |url=https://www.treadbylee.com/p/he-became-the-first-black-mayor-of |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240510060248/https://www.treadbylee.com/p/he-became-the-first-black-mayor-of |archive-date=2024-05-10 |access-date=June 19, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Koplowitz |first=Howard |date=May 14, 2024 |title=Newbern, Alabama’s first Black mayor denied special election in lawsuit over whites locking him out |work=[[List of Advance subsidiaries|AL.com]] |url=https://www.al.com/politics/2024/05/newbern-alabamas-first-black-mayor-denied-special-election-in-lawsuit-over-whites-locking-him-out.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240517163507/https://www.al.com/politics/2024/05/newbern-alabamas-first-black-mayor-denied-special-election-in-lawsuit-over-whites-locking-him-out.html|archive-date=2024-05-17 |access-date=June 19, 2024}}</ref>

Elections were not held in the town for decades and Stokes' lawyers stated that they had not occurred for 60 years. They stated that the mayoralty "has simply been passed from individual to individual to anyone who would agree to be Mayor without regard to elections".<ref name="lock2" />

On June 21, 2024, a settlement was reached in which Braxton would return to his mayoral duties.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://apnews.com/article/newbern-alabama-first-black-mayor-settlement-6a158105e703b8fe462afeb6b16a6a2c |title=Alabama town's first Black mayor, who had been locked out of office, will return under settlement |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=25 June 2024 |website= |publisher=[[Associated Press]] |access-date=25 June 2024 |quote=}}</ref>