Photo editing by Bronwen Latimer. We may earn a commission from these links. Besides Virettia, her cousin was running for a seat on the five-member City Council in another mostly White ward. Hey Jerry, the mayor said to one of the other councilmen as he came in. Take the high road, people kept advising. Virettia asked him who was on the abatement board. Hed never told her about the notes he got in his mailbox with messages like Shut your mouth, n-----. Or the restraint he had to summon to ask White colleagues who still used the term boy to refer to Black men: If you know the gentlemans name, would you please call him by his name? He had not told her about feeling like you werent there.. Four days later, a sheriffs deputy knocked on her door and handed her a lawsuit aimed at overturning her election based on the residency issue. At the time, two Black women were organizing Black voters to try to change that when they were accused of absentee ballot fraud, convicted by all-White juries and given the maximum sentences of four and five years in prison. Virettias mother had shopped at his store. Growing up in Fayette during a time of growth and initiative I know the citizens of our town have the heart to continue the progressive actions that have always characterized our town. One on the abatement board in a town that was roughly 73 percent White and 24 percent Black. Each council member is assigned oversight for a unit of city government. The City of Fayette is located in Fayette County in the State of Alabama.Find directions to Fayette, browse local businesses, landmarks, get current traffic estimates, road conditions, and more.According to the 2019 US Census the Fayette population is estimated at 4,249 people. After upending a racial norm in the rural South, a Black councilwoman contends with defiance from a community she wants to serve, The Fayette City Council with members Tommy Williams and Virettia Whiteside meets at City Hall in the small Alabama town in January with Mayor Rod Northam in attendance. The mayor acts as theofficial head of City government and presidesat City Council meetings. . Fayette, Alabama City Council 'Rule of One' Black Member Comes to an End 1 Read Every Article Esquire Has Ever Published 2 The 35 Best Gifts for Serious Whiskey Drinkers 3 Marvel Is Weird About. Address, Phone Number, and Hours for Fayette City Hall, a Town & City Hall, at Temple Avenue North, Fayette AL. We are conveniently located 40 miles from the City of Tuscaloosa and approximately 90 miles to the City of Birmingham. County Office is not affiliated with any government agency. She felt the same sense of uncertainty that she had felt since all of this began, and the feeling continued until she called her lawyer a few days later to check on her case. See complete story in The Times-Record. Local elections were coming up. All council members and Mayor Ray Nelson were present for the meeting. Find 7 external resources related to Fayette City Hall. BOTTOM RIGHT: Like many other Mayfair Manor residents, Zach supported Virettia during her council run. That she had won. People got to live, said the Black board member, Scott Walker, who had become visibly angry as the hearing went on. I kept my yard up. State officials Its mine. They drove through downtown, then crossed over into Virettias ward on the east side of town, which she had won in a runoff against a White candidate, 184 to 104, with most of her votes coming from her tenants. Look at the state Constitution. The mayor is avoting member of the Council. The residents have got protection because weve got ordinances, said the mother, going on about declining property values, until Ericka finally stood up. City of Fayetteville It began with the gift from Lois Wilson, a Fayette native, of her art collection, which ultimately totaled 2,600 pieces of her own and of other artists' work. Lord give me the strength, Virettia thought to herself. Now.. (McCrummen won a Pulitzer in 2018 for her coverage of Judge Roy Moore, the Gadsden Mall Creeper, in Alabama.) For additional information on events at the Civic Center or to host an event at the Civic Center, please contact Glenda Robertson at 205-932-8727. No FBI Agent Should Just Trust Trump to Tell Truth, Republican Senators Form Wingnut Xylophone, How to Line Your Pockets While Reshaping the Court, SCOTUS Ponders Whether to Dub Loans Unforgiven, Effort to Recall N.O. Copy editing by Wayne Lockwood. Whitesides election messed with this informal order of things. Ox Bodies, now a division of TBEI, is a world leader in truck dump bodies, Fayette Fabrication, founded in 2014, provides custom carts, racks and skids for the automotive industry across the southeast. The median household income was $25,714 and the median family income was $36,589. I think Fayette dodged a bullet.. Free viewers are required for some of the attached documents.They can be downloaded by clicking on the icons below. Even though Virettia had never met Scottie Porter, he was not exactly a stranger. Council Lady Whiteside? the mayor said, turning to his left. Welcome to Fayette, a city of opportunities and beginnings. (Jared Ragland for The Washington Post). (Jared Ragland for The Washington Post), During her campaign, Virettia knocked on doors in Haughton Acres, a predominantly white, middle-class neighborhood in her ward. Aliska Hughes-Monroe and Scottie Carl Porter are seeking the council position in Ward Four. The cameraman who live-streamed all the council meetings swung the lens toward Virettia, who cleared her throat. There were 2,336 housing units at an average density of 273.0 per square mile (105.4/km2). Black citizens are allowed to participate in local government, but not to approach anything remotely like controlling it. Cotton fields, such as this one in Fayette, still permeate the South. Click on the links below to view the Agenda and Minutes from the City Council Meetings. She punched the girl in the face, which solved the immediate problem but also began a period of acting out that she later decided had to do with feeling abandoned and wanting someone to rescue her. Mailing Address: 103 First Avenue NW, Suite 4, Fayette, Alabama, 35555-2627 I know its hard youre his mom and thats your baby, but Im here, Virettia said, waving over another tenant behind on his rent. Virettia had always thought of her town as a nice place to live but a hard place to be anybody unless your granddaddys uncles cousins a somebody. For a while, her father had been somebody the citys first Black councilman but that was long ago, and she had always wondered what to make of his silence about the experience. Not that Virettia, who had never been in Scotties store and had never been one of the people he sometimes invited in for afternoon tea and conversations amid the antiques, had heard him say any of this; she only had the lawsuit, along with her own knowledge that it was precisely because of what had happened in Aliceville and places like it that in 1988, Black voters in Fayette were able to elect the towns first Black councilperson, who happened to be her father. All members of the Fayetteville City Councilserve concurrent two-year terms following acitywide election held in early November inodd-numbered years. Popularity:#1 of 2 Town & City Halls in Fayette County#114 of 236 Town & City Halls in Alabama#3,438 in Town & City Halls. She had been on the phone last May with her boss, talking about how she felt the needs of her tenants and working-class families were being ignored in Fayette when her boss said, So what are you going to do about it?. The reality was that she could not afford to make a scene, she said, not in a town like Fayette, not with so much at stake. 1.4% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race. Fayette is a city and the county seat of Fayette County, Alabama, United States. All nine council members are elected from single member districts and only citizens within each district may vote for each district seat. [16], Coordinates: 334131N 874956W / 33.692068N 87.832358W / 33.692068; -87.832358. Virettia put the cap on her pen, and a few minutes later, the meeting was over. She was not the first Black person on the City Council in the rural town of Fayette. A few days later, Virettia was still upset, and when a tenant whod helped on her campaign stopped by her office, she started telling her what had happened. I worked for that spot. TheFayetteville City Councilis an elected body representing the citizens of Fayetteville. The racial makeup of the city was 75.34% White, 23.38% Black or African American, 0.12% Native American, 0.28% Asian, 0.30% from other races, and 0.57% from two or more races. It was Tuesday, the day of the council meeting, and in the afternoon, Virettia got a call from a White woman in town, a friend of her mothers, who had been the only person to defend her on Facebook. Across many fields of endeavor Fayette has been the starting point for people with great ideas, energy and expectations for tomorrow. People think we dont have a problem, but we do. In accordance with that act, four of the nine districts are drawn so that minorities are assured a voting majority within that district. Here's a small story from a small place that teaches us big lessons about what kind of country we actually are. The situation became so delicate that when local ministers held a prayer vigil for racial justice during the height of nationwide protests, an organizer quietly asked people not to bring Black Lives Matter signs for fear of confirming the imagined apocalypse. She is the newly elected City Council member for Ward 1, which includes the complexes she manages. Sherry Settle represented the Fayette County Board of Registrars at the meeting. The City Council also appoints an attorney, who represents the City administration and City Council in all legal matters. I dont even know where to begin, she said. About 15.4% of families and 20.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 23.2% of those under age 18 and 15.9% of those age 65 or over. Of the 2,092 households 26.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.2% were married couples living together, 14.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.7% were non-families. This aint the half of it, baby.. Why now?. But no one wants to talk about race in this town, she said. Virettia talks with a resident at the Mayfair Manor apartments in Fayette. The Fayette time zone is Central Daylight Time which is 6 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Mayor of Fayette / 660-248-5246 . Rioters were going to target downtown Fayette, where the Garden Club had planted flower beds and people gathered on holidays in the courthouse square. 36101 334-544-0248 egrimes@montgomeryal.gov: DISTRICT 2: Brantley W. Lyons 4256 Lomac Street (36106) 334-557-4196 blyons@montgomeryal.gov . Antiques store owner Scottie Porter lost a lawsuit against Virettia that disputed her eligibility to hold office in Ward 1 because she owns a home outside of it. Virettia closed her eyes and thought about all the things she had wanted to say but had not said during the past months as she felt her legitimacy questioned. Virettia also manages Valley Cove. The city is situated on the southern edge of the Piedmont Plateau. Council Meetings - Fayette, Alabama City Council Meetings begin at 5:00 PM on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month in the City Hall. Stand behind me show up! Virettia had texted then. It was also because he believed she had run for nefarious reasons including his belief that she was part of a vast plot by national Democrats and billionaires like George Soros and Bill Gates to retain power at any cost. The multiracial tenants include fast-food workers, veterans and elderly and disabled people. It was a small town. These are informal meetings. Its disguised pretty well but its right here among us. Fayette is organized in a mayor-council form of city government, with a mayor elected citywide and five council members elected from districts. Preachers: nothing. This is the position that Mayor Pro-Tem Wilson will vacate to make a run for the mayors job. Generally, no votes are taken. Few people will say what I say, but people in this town were scared to death. She walked by them, took her seat and began looking over the agenda, thinking about what she might say once she had a chance to speak. Someappointees must have special licenses ormeet certain professional requirements. including West Point Lake in Georgia, 15 minutes to the east and Alabama's Lake Martin, 30 minutes to the west. For a full list of our elected officials and department heads including contact information, click here. She had imagined another version of the moment, one where she had turned to the camera and said to the whole town of Fayette, Why are you so frightened? (Jared Ragland for The Washington Post). The syrup is still produced locally in a manufacturing facility in downtown Fayette. Wednesday, August 19, 2020 - 11:04:46 AM. Our county is a wonderful place to live with tremendous opportunities for growth, development, and industrial development with our proximity to the I-22 Corridor. In Ward Two, incumbent Councilman Eddy D. Campbell will face challenger Floyd Rogers Jr. for the position. In addition to these . Fayette County was founded on December 20, 1824 by an act of the Alabama Legislature and was named in honor of Revolutionary War hero General Marquis de Lafayette. Subscribe now! The Fayette City Council held a public hearing concerning property abatements and later voted to charge the owners for the city's costs for cleanup at six of the abated properties. Check back often to see our calendar of upcoming events and our latest county job openings. You see what Im saying? However, that was far from the actual reason, as Porter made clear to McCrummen. See a helpful list of local county services and agencies. Phone-Number: 334-864-7181 Meeting-Type: special/called Submission-datetime: 1/27/2023 8:19:08 AM: Notice: Statements . Then came her last chance, the part of the meeting where the mayor asked each council member for updates on their own committees or anything else happening in Fayette. These people, these problems that she wanted the power to solve. From its beginning as one of the earliest towns in northwest Alabama, industrious citizens have captured the future with their visions and dreams. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve the people of my hometown. How White colleagues hed come to consider friends after 24 years on the council had backed off supporting him after the rumors started that he had recruited all the Black candidates to run at once, which was not true. Learn about the county commission that cares for our region of Alabama. She had replaced it with a trailer approved by the fire chief, a decision some of her neighbors were asking to be overturned by referring to a 1970s ordinance. Each office holder is elected to a four year term. Okay his medication: Hes taking it every day? Virettia asked. The mayor is elected at-large. All of that was still in the air as Virettia, preparing for the first full City Council meeting, drove through town one day with her friend Aliska Hughes-Monroe, the new councilwoman from the traditionally Black ward, to see about a zoning issue.
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