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Alabama’s first black mayor asks court to allow black residents to vote in November after decades of elections blocked by white officials

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Alabama's first black mayor asks court to allow black residents to vote in November after decades of white officials blocking the election

A outstanding civil rights law firm has joined in a request for immediate motion against Newbern, Alabama, as part of a federal lawsuit filed in 2023 that alleges that white officials in the bulk Black city unfairly stayed in power by manipulating the voting process .

The lawsuit, filed in March 2023 by Alabama-based Quinn, Connor, Weaver, Davis and Rouco LLP, which was later joined by the Legal Defense Fund with an updated grievance in September 2023, alleged that white officials systematically in multiple cases they were taking control of the democratic process. decades, which allowed them to maintain full control over a city where 80 percent of the inhabitants are black.

The city has a population of about 200, of whom only 20 percent are white, but white people have at all times managed to retain most, if not all, of the seats on the town council.

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Patrick Braxton is elected mayor of Newbern, Alabama. (Photo: Facebook)

Braxton et al.’s lawsuit v. Stokes et al. was filed on behalf of Newbern’s first Black Mayor and now lead plaintiff, Patrick Braxton, who took office nearly 4 years ago in absentia because he was the just one to file to run for mayor.

His predecessor, Haywood “Woody” Stokes III, who was named as a defendant in the lawsuit, and his handpicked, all-white city council, didn’t challenge Braxton on the time, breaking with long-held tradition.

However, when Braxton won the vote, white officials organized a rigged special election to prevent the brand new mayor from appointing a predominantly Black city council, and took other covert actions that prevented voters from selecting their preferred council members.

Last week, Braxton asked the court for a preliminary injunction, urging the court to force white officials to hold elections in November in order that Black Newberns can exercise their constitutional right to vote before a final ruling on the case is issued.

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The order would immediately allow black residents to vote in a general election for the first time in years while stopping further racial discrimination until a final court ruling is issued.

The lawsuit alleges that White City officials illegally rescinded Braxton’s 2020 nomination and quickly re-elected Stokes as mayor, leading to an ungainly arrangement in which Braxton and Stokes have been doing dual roles for nearly 4 years.

Before Braxton, Newbern’s previous mayors were either appointed or ran unopposed, while some of these public officials held office for greater than a decade at a time, consolidating power over generations of white residents.

The lawsuit alleged that black residents of Newbern were completely unaware that they’d the appropriate to vote in the mayoral election and still didn’t know who the actual elected mayor was.

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“By failing to organize or notify residents of municipal elections, Newbern officials continually prevent residents from electing representatives and holding office. It is imperative that the courts step in to ensure that Newberns can fairly and fully exercise their fundamental right to vote.” said the statement from Richard Rouco, one of the plaintiff’s co-counsel.

Racial tensions in the town made national headlines last summer as Braxton continued to grapple with overt racism and his tenure was plagued by every day harassment and intimidation that left him unable to effectively govern the town.

Last 12 months, Braxton expressed frustration with the situation, saying his white colleagues were “so stuck in their ways and they don’t want anything different for the city. They just want it to stay the same,” Braxton said: According to guardian. “I hope they break and just move on and give everything back to me. If not, we will just go to court.”

Braxton said the racism he encountered was just the tip of the iceberg, as black voters in Newbern have faced a lifetime of discrimination each time and wherever they tried to vote or run for office in the agricultural town, which takes hours and hours. .. half west of Montgomery.

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“As a lifelong Newbern resident, I strongly believe in the importance of exercising my right to vote,” he said. “For decades, officials in my city have excluded me and other voters from voting and speaking out about what is happening here.”

Braxton emphasized that voter participation will probably be crucial to transforming the community and that Black people deserve a voice in determining the town’s future:

“Voting is not a privilege; it is a responsibility to help shape the direction and priorities of our community. We want to make sure our voices are heard and our votes are counted. We are asking the courts to enforce Newbern’s elections this November so we can vote and actively participate in the democratic process.”

The plaintiffs allege that by 2020, Newbern had not held a mayoral election in decades.

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The Legal Defense Fund was founded by Thurgood Marshall in 1940 and was originally part of the NAACP before becoming an independent entity. The organization was involved in many landmark civil rights cases, including Brown v. Board of Education, which led to the desegregation of public schools in the United States.

Alabama’s first black mayor asks court to allow black residents to vote in November after decades of elections blocked by white officials

This article was originally published on : atlantablackstar.com
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Politics and Current

Donald Trump under fire after he was caught on Hot Mic

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In some ways, the White House tried to manage the narrative on Wednesday.

After taking on the rotation of reporters allocated to cover the day by day schedule of the president – work previously carried out by Association of White House Corresponders -President Donald Trump went a step further, asking one in every of the reporters of the brand new within the press pool, together “Fox and Friends” by Lawrence Jones to say to the viewers: “We did a great job, please. Ok? “

“Say it was unbelievable,” said the president after casting the primary meeting of the office of the second term on February 26. The White House was already cut off, however the Audio Associated Press channel remained and captured the moment of a hot microphone.

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US President Donald Trump, to whom the Golf legend of Tiger Woods joined, speaks through the party of the Foreign Black History within the Eastern White House on February 20, 2025 in Washington. (Photo of Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Jones, who has already lobbyed a number of inquiries to Softball for the president (including “Who is your favorite member of the office?”) I didn’t disappoint.

“The president chose members of the office who can really present their ideas and their ideas. He does not have to worry that they will leave and blow up everything-they are on the same side, “said the co-host Steve Doocy.

“I also think it’s great,” Jones replied. “They are guys who normally – and girls – are used to communicate their ideas. They divide the president’s vision and communicate it in such a concise way. I don’t think we’ve ever seen it in administration. “

“It is people who show how uncertain this president is,” said one in every of the critics who responded to a viral report on the moment of Caugh-on-Camera. “He knows that most of them we watched, right?” Someone said.

In fact, the meeting was dominated by Elon Muskwho opened with a weak joke, saying: “Well, I should simply call myself modest technical support,” and from there he initiated. Photos showed that the president was napping through the presentation of Musk.

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Referring to his work as “necessary”, Musk presented one other federal agency within the Doge chopping block. “We spend lots within the defense department, but we spend that over a trillion dollars for interest. If this happens, the country goes, it is going to turn into de facto bankrupt – he said.

Jones was not the one Trump friendly correspondent who joined the press pool on Thursday.

The correspondent of Brian Glenn’s chief house from Real America, perhaps essentially the most absorbing the Networks Pro-Trump network, and the correspondent of the White House Newsmax, James Rosen, were a part of Gaggle, replacing older media, including the Associated Press, which was blocked within the events of the White House for refusing to call the Mexican bay with Mexico with Mexico with Mexico with Mexico with Mexican America after the president announced a change performed by the manager.

Meanwhile, the Association of White House correspondents announced that it might now not coordinate the common range of the White House until the dispute over unlimited access to the media is sustained. Also on Wednesday, the president announced He will sue reporters who use the common practice of anonymous quotes in unfavorable stories or books about it. Such quotes are sometimes used to cause greater honesty from the source, which otherwise might be afraid to talk.

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What does all this mean for residents? Less difficult questions and a more favorable relationship for the president, whose crossing of the management has now not checked by Congress.

This explains why this clip He was on the web on Thursday with “The Simpsons”. When the owner of the nuclear plant, Montgomery Burns, decides to use for the governor, his campaign suggests dinner with the Simpsons family to assist the energy director involved with voters from the working class. Lisa Simpson is forced to ask This is an issue From a guest dinner of a guest:

“Mr. Burns, your campaign seems to have a fugitive momentum. Why are you so popular?”

Get used to it.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nicwjeliniu

(Tagstotransate) Donald Trump

This article was originally published on : atlantablackstar.com
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USAID cuts are already hitting countries around the world. Here are 20 projects that have been closed

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Countries around the world already feel the influence of Trump’s administration decision to eliminate over 90% of foreign assistance contracts and reduce the financing of around $ 60 billion. A number of hours after the announcement at the starting of this week, The programs have been closed, Leaving tens of millions of individuals without access to life -saving care.

About 10,000 contracts with the American International Development Agency were accomplished on Wednesday, in letters sent to non -governmental organizations around the world.

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Letters said that the programs were rejected “for the convenience and interests of the US government”, based on an individual with knowledge of the content that they spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk publicly on this subject.

Many programs are present in the fragile countries that are highly depending on American help with a purpose to support healthcare systems, nutrition programs and stop hunger.

Here, several key projects around the world, which AP confirmed, have been closed:

1: In Congo, the motion of a bunch of help against hunger will stop to treat tens of hundreds of malnourished children from May, which, based on a charity, will make children put children in “deadly danger”.

2: According to the Committee on Cadastral Risk Management in Ethiopia in Ethiopia, help stopped for over 1 million people. The Ministry of Health was also forced to terminate the contract of 5,000 employees throughout the country, focused on stopping HIV and malaria, vaccination and assist in a difficult situation in coping with the trauma of war.

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3: In Senegal, the largest malaria project was closed. According to a USAID worker, who was not authorized to talk over with the media. Mother and youngsters’s health and nutrition services were also closed. They provided look after tens of hundreds of pregnant women and treatment that would prevent acute malnutrition.

4: In South Sudan, the International Emergency Committee closed a project that provides access to prime quality health and nutrition services over 115,000 people.

5: The program closed by the Norwegian refugee council in Colombia left 50,000 people without saving their lives, including in the northeast, where the growing violence caused a humanitarian crisis once a generation. This included food, shelter, clean water and other basic items for people displaced in the region.

6: According to the International Rescue Committee, 90 community cuisines closed in the capital in the torn war of Sudan, leaving greater than half 1,000,000 people without consistent access to food.

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7: According to Bangladesh, 600,000 women and youngsters will lose access to mother’s critical health care, protection against violence, reproductive health services and other life -saving care, in accordance with the United Nations Fund.

8. In small critical assistance, equivalent to access to water, food and health services for over 270,000 people, based on a help group, which didn’t wish to be listed for fear of repression.

9. Over 400,000 people in North Burkina Faso lost access to services equivalent to water. According to the help group, which didn’t want to get replaced for fear of a repressiveist.

File-Somalians who escaped from the affected areas are sitting in a makeshift camp on the outskirts of the capital of Mogadishu, Somalia on February 4, 2022 (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Abdi Warsameh, File)

10. In Somalia, 50 health centers serving over 19,000 people were closed per thirty days because health care employees are not paid, based on the American help group.

11. In Ukraine, based on money, humanitarian programs, which last yr reached 1 million people, were suspended, based on the spokesman for the Secretary General of the UN.

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12. Hundreds of mobile health teams and other services were suspended in Afghanistan, they concerned 9 million people, based on the UN spokesperson.

13. According to the UN Secretary General in Syria in Syria, for about 2.5 million people in the northeast of the country ceased to supply services. Also in the north, a dozen or so health clinics, including the primary hospital recommending this area, closed, said doctors without borderlines.

14. In Kenya, over 600,000 people living in drought -harassed areas and chronic sharp malnutrition will lose their access to the rescue lifetime of food and nutrition, based on Mercy Corps.

Officials say that Trump's administration plans to lower the entire part of the USAID work

15. At Haiti, 13,000 people lost access to dietary support, in accordance with actions against hunger.

16. In Thailand, hospitals help around 100,000 Refugees from Myanmar According to the Border Consortium of the Help Group, closed.

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17. According to the International Emergency Committee in Nigeria, 25,000 extremely malnourished children will stop to receive food assistance until April.

18. A program to enhance access to warning systems for disabled people for disabled people was detained in the Philippines.

19. In Vietnam, a program helping disabled people through training carers and providing medical care at home stopped, in accordance with humanity and integration.

20. In Yemen, 220,000 resettled people will lose access to mother’s critical health care, protection against violence, treatment of rape and other life -saving care, in accordance with the United Nations Fund.

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The Associated Press Writers Sylvie Corbet got here in Paris, France, Robert Badendieck in Istanbul, Turkey, Evelyn Musambi in Nairobi, Kenya, Thalia Beata in New York and Edith Lederer in the United births contributed to this report.

Health supporters in Africa are worried that Trump will introduce a

(tagstransate) @AP

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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Politics and Current

Speaker of the New York Council Adrienne Adams is considering Burmoral Run

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NYC Council Speaker Adrienne Adams ‘Seriously Considering’ Mayoral Run


The speaker of the City Council in New York Adrienne Adams submitted documents to the financial council of the New York campaign to be able to create a campaign committee in the upcoming mayor’s race.

“We currently have chaos and we have reduced confidence in the other side of the town hall,” Adams said in an interview with Gothamist. “That is why I am seriously considering the campaign to become the first woman of the mayor of New York.”

In addition to becoming the first woman chosen as the mayor, Adams could be the first black woman and the first speaker of the city council who took the highest elected place in New York.

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confirmed that Adams would do it Wait until the next week to make the final decision to launch. It is expected to offer the address of the “city state” on March 4.

“I wasn’t looking for it; It was not in my plans – she said, adding, “I believe someone have to be the soul of the city.”

A possible Adams offer for the mayor comes amongst the precipitation with the current mayor, Eric Adams. Adams, who is not related to the mayor, recently joined other city leaders, asking him to subside because of the corruption scandal.

If he joins the race, Adams will join the crowded, qualified field. Comptroller City Brad Lander and his predecessor Scott Stringer, Queens Assemblymber Zohran Mamdani, senator of the state Queens Jessica Ramos and senator of State Brooklyn Zellor Myrie.

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There were also rumors that the New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was considering returning to politics and applying for the mayor.

A recent survey with the Honan Strategy Group showed that Cuomo has a most important role in a democratic basic race of 38%. Mamdani is second at 12%, and the mayor of Adams is in third place with 10%. The Adams speaker received only 2% support from survey respondents.

(Tagstranslate) Mayoral Race (T) Adrienne Adams (T) New York City (T) Eric Adams

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This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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