On the podcast below, retiring Huntsville reporter Lee Roop joins us and talks about the newspaper business through the years and covering everything from NASA to Truman Capote.

Mayoral lockout

The only mayoral candidate in Newbern that qualified to run in 2020 may finally be set to take that office, reports AL.com’s Howard Koplowitz.

Newbern, population 133, is in Hale County.

Patrick Braxton has said that, he when decided he wanted to run for mayor and sought to file the proper paperwork, he was told by previous mayor Haywood Stokes that Newbern doesn’t even have ballots or voting machines. Apparently, essentially the same folks have always run the city, sometimes even handing down the seats to family members.

But this past election cycle, Braxton and a new set of city councilors qualified to run and, it would seem, would be setting up shop in City Hall.

But Braxton said he was locked out of the town hall and denied access to the bank accounts. The old guard then held a special election — he said without his knowing about it — and the former council members claimed their positions back. When Braxton wouldn’t meet with the old council, it declared the mayor’s office vacant and re-appointed Stokes as mayor.

And that’s where Newbern has been, with two mayors and eight councilors claiming one mayor’s office and four council seats.

Adding to the drama: The old guard is white, and the newer folks are Black. Newbern is around 80% Black.

With a federal trial looming, the parties have reached a proposed settlement that would finally instate Braxton as mayor and the new city council after nearly four years of limbo.

If a federal judge signs off on the settlement, the defendants would also admit to constitutional violations and the town would pledge to hold free and fair elections beginning in November 2025.

BSC buyer?

Miles College has signed a letter of intent to negotiate a deal to buy the Birmingham-Southern College campus, reports Barnett Wright of The Birmingham Times.

Birmingham-Southern shut down operations on May 31 after years of financial trouble. Its campus sits on nearly 200 acres in west Birmingham. Miles College is a private HBCU in nearby Fairfield.

There previously were reports that Huntsville-based Alabama A&M might make an offer on the property, but nothing new has been reported recently.

RIP Romay Davis

Congressional Gold Medal winner and World War II veteran Romay Davis has passed away at age 104, reports AL.com’s Howard Koplowitz.

Davis served in the all-Black, all-female battalion known as the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion — the “Six Triple Eight,” which is also the name of a movie starring Kerry Washington that’ll be coming out on Netflix later this year.

More than 800 Black women made up the Six Triple Eight. They were deployed to England in 1945 to catch up on a six-month backlog of mail to soldiers in Europe. That’s a vital role in boosting morale in the late stages of World War II, and two years ago President Biden signed a bill authorizing the unit to receive the Congressional Gold Medal.

Davis  was still working at a Montgomery Winn-Dixie when she turned 100.

More Alabama News

Born on This Date

In 1937, R&B singer-songwriter Eddie Floyd, who was born in Montgomery and moved to Detroit as a kid. He was a member of the Falcons, an early Detroit vocal group that at one time also included Wilson Pickett. Floyd was the guy who wrote “Knock on Wood” and took it to No. 1 on the Soul chart.

The podcast