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Alabama boat fight video in full shows chair thrown in Montgomery riverfront brawl

Footage captured on the phones and cameras of dozens of spectators shows the fight in full in Montgomery riverfront, Alabama, which unfolded into a massive brawl including one fighter armed with a chair

• 14:35, 8 Aug 2023
• Updated 16:35, 8 Aug 2023

The full video of the shocking Alabama boat brawl has gradually been revealed as footage from dozens of witnesses from the riverfront has slowly found its way onto social media.

A number of people were arrested and even more arrest warrants issued in connection with the riverfront brawl in Montgomery, Alabama’s capital, that drew nationwide attention.

Major Saba Coleman, of the Montgomery Police Department ,said there are currently four active warrants and more could be issued after authorities review more footage. Police said Sunday that several people were detained and charges are pending.

Video circulating on social media showed a large melee Saturday that appeared to begin when a crew member of a city-operated riverboat, the historic Harriott II, a three-story dinner cruise boat, tried to get a pontoon boat moved that was blocking the mooring space. An argument erupted before a topless man swung at the worker and a fight began .

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The conflict escalated when several white people joined in on attacking the Black crew member. A separate video shows that several Black passengers then confronted the pontoon boat group after the riverboat docked, sparking another brawl that was largely split along racial lines.

One of the brawlers, a Black man, got his hands on a chair and was seen towards the end of the melee bringing it down ferociously on people's heads, including one woman who had already been knocked to the ground. Before the Harriott II had a chance to moor, a 16-year-old boy, dubbed 'Aquaman,' jumped off the boat and into the water so he could swim over and join the fight.

Makina Lashea, a representative for the boy’s family, issued a statement following the incident.

“In the face of adversity, Aaren selflessly came to the rescue of a fellow colleague, showcasing courage beyond his years,” Lashea said in the statement on Facebook .

“The overwhelming love and support pouring in from all corners of the state and surrounding areas have deeply touched Aaeren.”

Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said police will hold a briefing Tuesday to provide an update on the situation.

“While there is a lot of activity and interest in this, we know that we’ll come through this together as a community collectively as we have other situations,” he told news outlets on Monday, according to al.com.

The mayor said in a statement Sunday that Montgomery police acted “swiftly to detain several reckless individuals for attacking a man who was doing his job.”

“This was an unfortunate incident which never should have occurred. As our police department investigates these intolerable actions, we should not become desensitised to violence of any kind in our community. Those who choose violence will be held accountable by our criminal justice system,” Mayor Reed said.

The fight took place along Montgomery’s downtown riverfront which the city has worked to develop into a tourist and recreation area with restaurants, bars and hotels.

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Videos Show Brawl At Montgomery’s Riverfront Park, And It Was A Glorious Day In Black History

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Source: Buyenlarge / Getty

M ontgomery, Alabama, is now the location of at least two iconic moments in Black history.

On March 25, 1965, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led thousands of nonviolent demonstrators on a nearly 60-mile march from Selma to the steps of the capitol in Montgomery. And on Aug. 25, 2023, the spirit of MLK looked down over the city’s Riverfront Park and thought to himself: “You know, I largely stood for nonviolent resistance—but they shot me anyway, so I’m finna get my lick back!”

By now, most of y’all have seen the melee that occurred Saturday on the dock at Montgomery’s Riverfront Park. You’ve likely seen it from multiple angles, in fact. You’ve probably heard all of the commentaries. You’ve watched as Black Twitter rejoiced while the rest of Twitter erupted in various responses ranging from overall condemnation of violence to wondering why everyone keeps making everything about race.

I suggest paying attention to Black Twitter because that’s where the cultural context lies.

Let’s begin with how it all started.

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According to witnesses, the brawl on the docks began when a riverboat arrived where a pontoon boat was blocking it from docking.

Witnesses said the Black dock worker who became a victim of violence brought on by the Caucasian occupants of the pontoon boat had simply informed the boat’s owners that they needed to move. Now, you may be shocked and dismayed to find out that, in Alabama, white people responded to a Black authority figure telling them where they didn’t need to be by trying to lynch said Black man with fists instead of nooses —but Black folks weren’t surprised at that part. What happened next, however, was quite the delightful surprise.

Black people across social media appear to agree that the Black dock worker tossing his hat into the air was basically the negro spiritual version of the bat signal.

And his people did not ( *in the voice of Lady Mormont from Game of Thrones * ) refuse the call.

A Black man swam across the river to answer the call.

Black men hopped off the boat to answer the call.

https://twitter.com/ElkingtonR79841/status/1688540683785601024

An older Black man, who was clearly looking for a place to set down his folding chair only to find white people’s heads kept getting in the way, answered the call.

Speaking of the man with the chair, there’s a lot of controversy, even among Black people, over whether or not he took things too far. After all, it’s difficult to decipher whether the woman he used as a WWE training dummy was part of the brawl, one of the people trying to break things up, or whether she was simply too slow to get the hell out of the warzone.

But I think we can all agree that, at this point, when white people wear red they just look like they’re in full MAGA regalia, which would make them an existential threat to Black people anyway, especially around a scene where white violence had erupted. Either way, the wise words Slim Charles told Avon of House Barksdale come to mind:

I just like to imagine that the Black man, who we saw handcuffed at the scene, is currently sitting in jail enjoying the extra jello cups his fellow Black inmates left by his lunch tray to pay tribute.

Also, fear not, Black people. The white folks who started the fight got arrested too after Black bystanders pointed them out because the “no snitch” policy simply does not extend to white thugs hopped up on Jason Aldean energy drinks who felt entitled to attack a Black man for doing his job because they didn’t like being told to move by someone their ancestors would have enforced “whites only” laws against.

https://twitter.com/ChelseyBrejanee/status/1688443625200345088

“Last night, the Montgomery Police Department acted swiftly to detain several reckless individuals for attacking a man who was doing his job,” Montgomery Mayor Steven L. Reed said in a statement Sunday, according to the Montgomery Advertiser . “Warrants have been signed and justice will be served.”

“This was an unfortunate incident which never should have occurred,” Reed said. “As our police department investigates these intolerable actions, we should not become desensitized to violence of any kind in our community. Those who choose violence will be held accountable by our criminal justice system.”

But, again, while Reed and others view this moment in contemporary Black history as an “unfortunate incident,” Black folks view it as a time to celebrate Black unity.

Sorry, but I really need to circle back to the Black man who swam, because Michael B. Phelps aka Aqua Mayne aka Boy-Got-Gills Scott-Heron aka Black Ariel ‘s brother, can not be denied his dues for doing a lot more than wading in that water.

Anyway, now that all the smoke has cleared, the Black delegation has put a number of proposals on the table, including making Aug. 5 a national Black holiday, and my personal request to change the name of the boat that was trying to dock from “Harriott II” to “Harriet Tubman’s Move-B*tch-Get-Out-The-Way-Mobile.”

It was a glorious moment that shall not be forgotten. Salute!

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4 people are being charged with assault for the waterfront brawl in Montgomery

Dustin Jones

A screenshot from one of the videos of the brawl in Montgomery, Ala., on Saturday. The video shows a fight that broke out between an apparent dock worker and several men who appeared to be parking their pontoon boat in a space reserved for the city's riverboat. @Josh_Moon / Screenshot by NPR hide caption

Authorities in Montgomery, Ala., are charging three men with assault for attacking a riverboat co-captain on Saturday. When officers arrived on scene, the fight had spiraled out of control into a full on brawl at the city's Riverfront Park.

Montgomery Police Chief Darryl Albert told reporters at a press conference Tuesday that three men involved in the incident have been identified as: Richard Roberts, 48, facing two counts of third-degree assault; Allen Todd, 23, and Zachary Shipman, 25, both of whom face one count of third-degree assault, a misdemeanor in Alabama.

On Thursday, Mary Todd, 21, turned herself in to authorities and was also charged with third-degree assault, officials said.

The chief told reporters that the department has been working with the city's district attorney and the FBI on what charges could be filed. Albert said that at this time the incident doesn't constitute charges of a hate crime or inciting a riot.

Montgomery brawl doesn't constitute hate crime charges, police chief says

"I understand the question and concern, that's why this department looked under every stone for answers," Albert told reporters.

Albert said one of the men is already in police custody in Selma, while two others planned to turn themselves in later on Tuesday.

The chief said the men had parked their pontoon boat in a space reserved for the Harriott II riverboat, and that though there were no signs posted at the time, the dock space is well-known to be for the ship.

Damien Pickett, the Black man seen in videos of the incident, is the co-captain of the Harriot II. He was sent ashore with an unidentified 16-year-old white male employee to remove the pontoon boat after some 45 minutes of trying to dock, Albert said.

The crew from the Harriott II had tried to reach the owners of the boat by using their loudspeaker, but the owners responded with vulgar language and hand gestures, according to Albert.

I've spent my career explaining race, but hit a wall with Montgomery brawl memes

When Pickett arrived on the dock, he tried to remove the boat so the Harriot II could safely dock, but was then confronted by the three white suspects, and a fight quickly ensued, Albert said.

The police said in a statement Monday that officers responded to a disturbance near Riverfront Park, and "At the scene, they located a large group of subjects engaged in a physical altercation." By the end of the night, 13 people were detained and interviewed, but ultimately released, Albert told reporters on Tuesday.

Albert said more warrants will likely be issued as officers continue reviewing footage. He also asked 42-year-old Reggie Gray, a Black man allegedly seen using a chair as a weapon in the footage, to come forward for questioning.

Pickett was the only one reported to have been treated at a hospital for injuries sustained in the brawl, Albert noted.

Montgomery Mayor Steven L. Reed promised residents in a statement on Saturday that "justice will be served."

"This was an unfortunate incident which never should have occurred. As our police department investigates these intolerable actions, we should not become desensitized to violence of any kind in our community," Reed said. "Those who choose violent actions will be held accountable by our criminal justice system."

Reed briefly addressed the issue during a press event Monday afternoon. He said that the safety of the community is paramount, that police are continuing to investigate the incident and that more details will be shared in a press conference on Tuesday.

"We want to make sure that the community is aware that we are fully engaged and we are doing all of our due diligence to find out exactly what took place," Reed said.

There was an all out brawl in Montgomery yesterday. This is the beginning of it. The man in the white shirt is a dock worker for the city. According to several people present, the white guys had been told to move their pontoon so the city's riverboat could park. Then this.... pic.twitter.com/BVkgXID8JX — Josh Moon 🇺🇸 (@Josh_Moon) August 6, 2023

Alabama political reporter Josh Moon shared a video of the fight on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. It shows that the incident appears to have been started by a group of boaters who had docked their pontoon boat in a space reserved for the city's riverboat.

Videos show Pickett working to untie the pontoon boat when he is confronted by a group of white men who appear to be responsible for the boat.

The riverboat's operator did not respond to a request for comment.

While the attendant was pointing to the riverboat making its way to the dock, one of the men becomes visibly agitated before striking him. One man appears to try to break up the attack, but then more young white men sprinted along the dock and joined the fight, then dragging Pickett to the ground to continue their attack.

The attack quickly spiraled out of control as several onlookers joined in on the chaos.

The incident started just hours after former President Donald Trump joined his supporters at an annual Republican Party summer dinner in Montgomery, which is credited as the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement.

Albert said the investigation is ongoing and that it's important to note that the brawl wasn't started by Montgomery residents.

"This is not indicative of who we are as a city. Montgomery is much better than that," the chief said. He also issued a stern warning ahead of any "possible retaliatory acts."

"Don't come here with it. We're not going to tolerate it," Albert said. "We will be active, we will be aggressive, and we will not allow this type of behavior in our city."

Correction Aug. 8, 2023

An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to the name of the city's riverboat as the Harriet II. The boat is called the Harriott II. It has also been updated to clarify that police have detained several people in connection to the brawl, and say charges are pending. Previously, the story said multiple people had been arrested.

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Alabama riverfront brawl: Video shows fight over parked pontoon boat

During a Tuesday afternoon press conference, Montgomery Police Department Chief Darryl Albert announced assault charges for the following men: Zachery Shipman, 25, Richard Roberts, 48, and Allen Todd, 23. (Credit: Joe Davenport via Storyful)

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clock This article was published more than  1 year ago

What we know about the Montgomery Riverfront brawl

A group of White boaters attacked a Black co-captain on Saturday on a dock at Riverfront Park in Montgomery, Ala., sparking a massive brawl that resulted in assault charges and the city’s mayor calling for justice to be served to the boaters “for attacking a man who was doing his job.”

Three White men were charged with misdemeanor assault over the brawl after 13 people were initially detained by police for interviews , Montgomery Police Chief Darryl J. Albert said at a news conference with Mayor Steven L. Reed (D) on Tuesday. Those charged were Richard Roberts, 48; Allen Todd, 23; and Zachery Shipman, 25. Several people were detained after video clips of the brawl went viral on social media over the weekend.

Reed said in a statement Sunday that police “acted swiftly to detain several reckless individuals for attacking a man who was doing his job.” He called the fight “an unfortunate incident which never should have occurred.”

Here’s what we know so far about the incident:

WATCH: Massive Riverfront Brawl in Alabama Leads to Multiple Arrests

The fight in Montgomery, which reportedly broke out over dock space, ballooned to include men, women, and a guy wielding a folding chair.

AJ McDougall

Breaking News Reporter

Michael Barera/WikiCommons

A Saturday night melee along a river in Montgomery, Alabama that exploded after a group of white boaters reportedly challenged a Black riverboat worker has led to several arrests, according to authorities.

The Montgomery Police Department said that “several” people had been detained after the brawl broke out at Riverfront Park around 7 p.m. Police confirmed to WSFA on Sunday afternoon that there were four active warrants in the case, with more possibly to come as the department’s investigation continues.

Witnesses told the station and several other local outlets that the fight was sparked by a pontoon boat blocking a riverboat’s dock space. “That area is the regular spot reserved for the Harriott II Riverboat,” the Montgomery Advertiser reported.

In footage that circulated on social media in the aftermath of the tumult, a Black man can be seen standing on the dock, apparently attempting to unmoor the pontoon.

“Those guys who parked there were told not to leave it there and they left it there,” the woman filming, a guest on the riverboat cruise, can be heard saying. She identifies the man as a member of the cruise’s crew.

“So he’s just pushing it off,” the woman narrates. “That’s funny. Took matters into his own hands. I love it.” In the background of the video, other guests and crew members can be heard shouting in encouragement.

Several white men then approach the crew member, and an inaudible verbal confrontation begins, lasting several minutes.

As the men continue to argue, people on the boat can be heard yelling chants including, “Knock his ass out, Damien!” and “Get the fuck out the way!” The people aboard the riverboat then begin chanting the lyrics to “Move Bitch.”

Eventually, one of the men in the pontoon group shoves the crew member back. The crew member throws his hat away and the pair begin exchanging blows.

In another video, onlookers can be heard screaming, with one watching from the river yelling, “Y’all help that brother!” Several other people then rush in to join the fight, including a Black man who jumps into the water from a boat and swims to the dock.

The man in the water was identified by a family publicist on Sunday night only as a 16-year-old named Aaren. Calling him a “cherished young hero,” the publicist said in a statement posted to Facebook that Aaren “selflessly came to the rescue of a fellow colleague, showing courage beyond his years.”

According to a third video of the incident, the fight appears to momentarily deescalate soon after Aaren reaches the dock, only for it to scale up again, becoming a full-on brawl as the riverboat docks and roughly a dozen other employees go ashore.

Within moments, men and women, both Black and white, can be seen kicking, punching, eye-gouging, and wrestling each other. A person is at one point thrown into the water, while elsewhere a man finds a folding chair and starts bashing people over the head with it. Security officers can be seen attempting to break various sections of the fight up.

Law enforcement officers who arrived on the scene soon after handcuffed several people, including the man with the folding chair. The detained suspects’ names have not been released, and charges against those involved in the fight were pending on Sunday, according to the Montgomery Police Department.

In a Sunday afternoon statement, Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said, “ Last night, the Montgomery Police Department acted swiftly to detain several reckless individuals for attacking a man who was doing his job. Warrants have been signed and justice will be served. This was an unfortunate incident which never should have occurred.”

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Tears. Shock. Joy. Why viral Alabama boat brawl matters

A violent brawl erupted on a boating dock in Montgomery on Saturday. And America hasn't stopped talking about it since.

In the days after, dozens of video recordings circulated on social media, showing fists flying, a chair being slammed onto someone's head, and a man swimming toward the dock to join the fight.

Some described it as "the best fight I've ever seen". But the videos of the violent uproar have also struck a chord with black Americans, who saw the fight - mostly divided along racial lines - as emblematic of the country's racist past, and a symbol for the ongoing fight for equal rights.

The setting of the brawl made the moment more poignant for some: Montgomery, Alabama, is known to be the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement, the name given to the battle for racial equality in the US which, in the eyes of some, has not ended.

"In short, I cried," said Candyce Anderson. "My tears were of grief. This is a grieving process… these are tears that our grandparents weren't able to cry."

Though she was not there to witness the incident when it happened, she was at the scene earlier that day.

Along with a dozen other women, she had gone to the dock to drop rose petals in the water to "honour our ancestors".

"The path that we walked to the waterfront, just a block away was the path that our enslaved ancestors walked, brought into Montgomery in chains," she said. "We cannot ignore the history, the ground on which this took place."

What happened?

The man seen receiving the first blow was a black man who, in the words of Montgomery police chief Darryl Albert, was simply "doing his job".

Damien Pickett was a co-captain of the Harriett II, a riverboat carrying over 200 passengers that needed to dock but couldn't. A much smaller pontoon boat was wrongfully docked in the Harriett II's designated space.

The occupiers of the pontoon boat were white men. Instead of moving their pontoon, they decided to hit Mr Pickett.

But before police could arrive and quell the violence, chaos erupted. Roughly two dozen people had joined the fight.

Three men and one woman have turned themselves in after arrest warrants were issued by the Montgomery Police Department, and have been charged with assault. A fifth person, the man seen wielding the chair in the video, has been called in by police for questioning.

Montgomery police so far have said they do not believe the incident was racially motivated. No hate crime-related charges or riot charges are expected, although the investigation is ongoing. Court documents show that an eyewitness - the white mother of a teenage boy working alongside the co-captain - reported hearing the men use racial slurs moments before launching the attack.

From past to present

Mrs Anderson said the sentiment among the city's black community since the incident was one of fatigue, and solidarity with men who joined with the boat co-captain as he stood his ground.

"When a [boat co-captain] is just doing his job and saying you can't dock here you have to move, and he's met with aggression and racial slurs, that is telling of what many citizens in this city have endured for years," she said.

"This time it was - 'Enough is enough.'"

The fatigue, Mrs Anderson said, dates back hundreds of years.

When many black people think of Montgomery, they think of the city that was once the capital of the Confederate States of America; they think of the countless slaves dragged onto the riverfronts to be sold. They think about Rosa Parks' arrest for refusing to yield her seat to a white person; they think about where Martin Luther King Jr's house was bombed. They think about 'Bloody Sunday', the time when, in 1965, a group of non-violent protestors on their way to Montgomery were beaten and bloodied by police on horseback in Selma, Alabama.

It's with this history in mind, said Michael Harriot, a historian and author of Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America, that the fight scenes on the Montgomery docks in 2023 were cheered by many.

"When people saw the black people, first of all, come to the defence of someone who was endangered and who happened to be black, and we saw the police respond by appropriately subduing the suspects, that's a rare thing to see," Mr Harriot said. "If you're on social media, you see a million videos of police brutality against black people, you see a million videos of people calling the police on black people for walking through white neighbourhoods… it is rare to see such an explicit example of justice being meted out."

As a result, "that caused a little bit of joy", Mr Harriot said.

Since the incident, countless memes, video re-enactments, and other humour-intended clips making light of the incident have flourished online. This includes the creation of a song called - the Montgomery Brawl.

"Seen a couple of them boys go night night," the creator of that song, Gmac Cash, raps. "And we got the first black man to swim to a fight. Salute!"

The song gained 1.6 million views in three days.

"When you see stuff like a song, that's a response that is - for lack of better words - part of our culture," Mr Harriot said. "We turn [something like the Montgomery incident] into a moment of black joy that can last."

When asked how black people can celebrate what appears to be an act of violence, Mr Harriot said: "I don't think we have to reconcile that or explain it. [Americans] celebrate moments of violence all the time. We valorise the Boston Tea Party. We valorise the Confederacy. We valorise so much violence in America and make it iconic.

"If that [memes and the song the Montgomery Brawl] is wrong, then America is wrong," he said.

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More arrest warrants could be issued after shocking video shows Montgomery, Alabama, riverfront brawl

By Jericka Duncan , Analisa Novak

Updated on: August 8, 2023 / 3:35 PM EDT / CBS News

Four arrest warrants have been issued in connection with a riverfront brawl in Alabama, with the potential for more to be issued pending a comprehensive review, according to Maj. Saba Coleman of the Montgomery Police Department. 

Shocking video captured the tumultuous scene that unfolded Saturday as what appeared to be a simple disagreement escalated into a violent clash in Montgomery. The incident, which unfolded at the Harriott II Riverboat docking area, involved a group of White people pummeling a Black riverboat worker, an exchange that sparked a massive fight. The incident has since  gone viral  and ignited discussions about race.

The suspects have been identified as Richard Roberts, a White male, 48, with two warrants pending; Allen Todd, a White male, 23, with one warrant pending; and Zachery Shipman, a White male, 25, with one warrant pending. One suspect has turned himself into the police, and the two others "are expected to follow," said Montgomery Police Chief Darryl J. Albert during a Tuesday afternoon news conference. 

He identified the victims in the case as co-captain Dameion Pickett and a 16-year-old juvenile, who both were struck by people from the private boat.

In a series of videos, Christa Owens recorded the tense moments that transpired when a disagreement began over docking space.

Owens, who was aboard the Harriott II Riverboat, said the boat had just completed a dinner cruise and was attempting to dock, only to find a small pontoon boat occupying the designated spot.  

"There were a few guys and a couple of women that were getting off of the boat and seemingly ignoring the captain's request to move," she said. 

A riverboat crew member stepped in and managed to move the pontoon boat several feet, clearing the way for the riverboat to dock, but was then confronted, which quickly led to a physical altercation between the riverboat worker and an irate, shirtless man.  

Owens said the crew member was simply trying to maintain order. 

"Our crewman was trying to explain over and over and over again, you know, we asked you to move so we can fit," she said. 

As the tension escalated, a group of pontoon boat passengers confronted the riverboat crew member, ultimately leading to a violent fight. 

"It felt a little tense, but then you saw punches and our crewman who is just trying to do his job is getting punched by these guys who are very angry," Owens said.  

Amid the chaos, a separate video showed other riverboat passengers rushing to the scene, some even swimming, in an attempt to assist the outnumbered crew member. At one point, a man   is seen picking up a white chair and hitting multiple people with it, including a woman. Law enforcement eventually intervened to stop the altercation and detain several individuals. 

Police said Tuesday they have identified the man with the chair as Reggie Green, 42, and asked him to contact them.

Mayor Steven Reed of Montgomery said in a statement that police swiftly apprehended "multiple reckless individuals involved in attacking a man who was carrying out his job." 

"This was an unfortunate incident which never should have occurred. As our police department investigates these intolerable actions, we should not become desensitized to violence of any kind in our community. Those who choose violence will be held accountable by our criminal justice system," Reed said.

Jericka Duncan is a national correspondent and the anchor for Sunday's edition of the "CBS Weekend News." Duncan is an Emmy-nominated journalist who has received several awards for her reporting, including two National Edward R. Murrow Awards and honors from the Associated Press and the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists, which named her Journalist of the Year in 2012.

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Mayor vows justice after massive brawl breaks out on Alabama riverfront

Multiple video clips of a brawl on the riverfront in Montgomery, Alabama, went viral on social media Sunday night, and the mayor reacted with a vow that justice would prevail.

Montgomery Mayor Steven L. Reed said in a statement Sunday that several people involved in the fighting Saturday evening have been detained.

"Justice will be served," he said.

NBC affiliate WSFA of Montgomery reported that four arrest warrants have been issued in connection with the altercation.

It appears to show brawling that split combatants along racial lines. The fighting appeared to follow a riverboat's attempt to dock where a pontoon boat was moored.

A man who was apparently from the riverboat walked to the pontoon and exchanged words with someone, precipitating an all-out brawl between people associated with each of the watercraft.

Reed indicated that the man from the riverboat was attacked and that those who committed violence against him would face the justice system.

"The Montgomery Police Department acted swiftly to detain several reckless individuals for attacking a man who was doing his job," he said.

Police told WSFA that the fight was reported at 7 p.m. Saturday.

The city's Riverfront along the Alabama River is a summertime draw that features the riverboat, an amphitheater, a stadium and a park, among other attractions.

Dennis Romero is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.

The Montgomery boat brawl and what it really means to “try that in a small town”

The viral fight valorized Black resistance — and punctured Jason Aldean’s racist “small town” narrative.

by Aja Romano

One of the key facets of extremism is the element of plausible deniability. As such, “ dog whistles ” — coded language used to mask a deeper extremist or discriminatory rhetoric — have become a pervasive part of the way we talk about politics and the culture wars. They’re also exhausting to unpack.

No matter how diplomatically or plainly you point out the underlying racism or bigotry of a specific image or turn of phrase, there’s always someone eager to take the code literally, to dismiss its context, its subtext, and clearly harmful impact. They’re happy to claim this is just what happens when you pucker your lips and blow, and any hateful dogs that come running are just a coincidence.

Then a song comes along like country singer Jason Aldean’s risible “ Try That in a Small Town .” The lyrics and accompanying video are layered with references to Black Lives Matter protests , sundown towns (“see how far you make it down that road”), and white protectionism (“good ol’ boys ... we take care of our own”). The video’s main location was no less than the site of historical lynchings , a particularly unsubtle jab. Inevitably, however, when you attempt to illuminate this racist imagery, a “Try That in a Small Town” defender will show up. They will assert that the whole thing is really just about, as Aldean himself tried to assert , “the feeling of community” and the desire for a return to “a sense of normalcy.”

Normal, to Aldean, seems to be a reality where Black protesters don’t disrupt the everyday lives of white citizens — even if those citizens are, as the song suggests, stockpiling guns and turning paranoid eyes on any and all outsiders. This attempt to reframe socially sanctioned racism as “just a community looking out for itself” has long been a part of the discriminatory tactics used against Black Americans, from lynch mobs to the racist, KKK-apologetic Birth of a Nation , to the legal defenses used by white men who murder unarmed Black ones. It’s a cultural tactic used not only to disenfranchise Black Americans but to then gaslight them about their own reality and experience. It’s a tactic that turns aggression into “self-defense.”

It’s one big reason, out of an infinitude of reasons, that the world was transfixed earlier this week when video surfaced of a group of Black boat workers in Montgomery, Alabama, appearing to voraciously fight back after a group of white pontoon boaters began attacking a Black boat captain.

What happened at the Montgomery boat brawl

The white boaters, coming from nearby Selma, had allegedly repeatedly caused trouble at the dock by parking their pontoon illegally in the spot reserved for a large tourist riverboat, the Harriott II. On Sunday, August 5, the riverboat had been waiting for around 45 minutes, with passengers aboard, to dock. Damien Pickett, the riverboat’s first mate and co-captain, disembarked in order to move the pontoon boat himself. In response, according to reports, at least three of the boaters attacked Pickett, punching him in the face, beating and kicking him.

This sounds like an all-too-familiar tragedy in progress: white-on-black violence, motivated by a sense of racist entitlement. Speaking to the Daily Beast after the incident, the boat’s captain, Jim Kittrell, stressed that the only motive appeared to be racial: “It makes no sense to have six people try to beat the snot out of you just because you moved their boat up a few feet. In my opinion, the attack on Damien was racially motivated.” Kittrell’s assumption seems to be bolstered by eyewitness testimony: One bystander, a victim’s family member, said in a sworn statement that she heard one of the white men drop the n-word before the fighting began.

It’s important to consider this incident in the broader context of Montgomery’s history, as well. Montgomery, one of the major historical fronts of the civil rights movement, is no stranger to racialized violence. It was there, in 1954, that a young Martin Luther King Jr. took up pastorship at a local church, where he became a spokesperson for the Montgomery bus boycotts alongside Rosa Parks. Through boycotts and years of sustained activism amid tense civil unrest, Montgomery protesters successfully challenged the rule of Jim Crow in the South and ultimately changed the nation. Montgomery also saw devastating segregationist violence throughout this period, including one of the most violent moments in the civil rights movement, “ Bloody Sunday .”

In 2023, coming after a cultural period of intensifying racialized protests, a group of white people whaling on an unsuspecting and defenseless Black man could have led to tragic consequences or, at the least, traumatized victims and onlookers.

What the video shows happening next, however, flipped the script: Seeing one of their colleagues being attacked, other Black boat workers rushed in to defend him and fight back. Bystanders also joined in, with one teen now known as “ Black Aquaman ” famously jumping into the water and swimming across the dock in order to help. One man, known to the internet as “Folding Chair Guy,” gained instant fame when he went after the three attackers with, you guessed it, a folding chair.

The suddenness of the fight, combined with the enthusiasm of the brawlers, the glee of the onlookers, and the fact that everyone had phones out recording the incident, made the Montgomery brawl — dubbed the Alabama Sweet Tea Party — into an immediate viral sensation. It produced everything from evocative Twitter reactions to a live swimming pool reenactment to a remix of Ernie Barnes’s iconic painting of Black partiers, Sugar Shack . The folding chair was instantly memorialized .

Most extraordinarily of all, no one rushed to mete out punishment for the Black dock workers who fought back. Though multiple fighters were briefly detained, all were released. Folding Chair Guy, real name Reggie Gray, has been dodging police requests to speak with him, but no one seems to be pushing too hard for his arrest either, although the investigation into the brawl is ongoing. At a press conference, Montgomery Police Chief Darryl Albert notably didn’t attempt to distort the power dynamics, stating simply that “several members of the Harriott II came to Mr. Pickett’s defense.” The three white attackers turned themselves in to police custody after warrants were issued for their arrest.

The prevailing public mood around the Montgomery brawl has not been racist backlash or anxiety over such a backlash, but rather deep satisfaction at a battle in which justice seems to have prevailed: The perpetrators were rounded up and the victims received a rousing defense from the community. For once, the marginalized underdog — a Black man being ganged up on by a group of white bullies — came out no worse for wear; Pickett reportedly walked away from the fight with only a headache and some minor cuts and bruises.

What it means to try that in a (not entirely) small town

The collective sense of satisfaction might be exactly the kind of communal security Jason Aldean was attempting to portray in “Try That in a Small Town.” This was, in fact, almost the exact scenario Aldean says he was attempting to capture in his ode to small-town vigilante justice: a group of outsiders come into town, refuse to obey the local customs or follow the local laws, and then get their asses duly whooped by the town citizenry.

While Montgomery is not a “small” town, its history of banding together to rout out racists is deeply relevant here. Montgomery is precisely the type of heartland town that deserves to have songs written about the bravery and commitment of its citizens to protecting one another, to fighting back against injustice — to defending its people and its way of life at all costs. But there’s plenty of reason to suspect that Montgomery wasn’t the kind of town — and this wasn’t the kind of scenario — that Aldean had in mind. We know that celebrating moments of Black defiance is incredibly rare in American history.

The Montgomery brawl represents an extraordinary triumphant moment in which Black resistance has been seen as a just force rather than a threat to the white establishment. Black shows of defiance, even when used in clear self-defense, are all too often wielded against the victim . Historically, instances of rebellion such as that of slave revolt leader Nat Turner have been used to justify more violence against Black people. Today, in cases where Black victims of police violence attempt to seek justice, the legal doctrine of “ qualified immunity ” — in which police have almost unlimited power to use force without fearing a lawsuit in response — is invoked.

The entire justice system, in other words, too frequently gets weaponized against Black Americans who assert themselves in the face of threats to their safety, property, and human dignity. Black citizens are rarely allowed to be “ heroic through defiance ,” to reclaim Black rebellion as an act of valor, or to wield reactive violence as a form of patriotism and idealism. That framing of violence is almost exclusively reserved for the kind of white supremacists Aldean’s song seems interested in protecting.

The Montgomery brawl was subversive, shocking, even refreshing in its memeability — not because violence is something to be enjoyed, but because the long arc of history, honed to oppress, simply could not withstand the glorious righteous fury of a bunch of boat workers who’d been forced to stand around for nearly an hour thanks to some entitled jerks who refused to follow the dock rules.

It’s worth asking whether the public’s reaction to the brawl would have been as laid back if the stakes hadn’t been so clear. These Black dockhands, after all, were working in the service of something undeniably anodyne, even arguably white-coded: a cruise on a 19th-century riverboat , with all the ties to antebellum history such a tour implies. Would this minor moment have been framed as heroic had the victims been trying instead to dock a summer cruise full of raucous Black partiers? If the dockhands had all turned out to be Black Lives Matter activists, would their rebellion have still been valiant?

It may seem silly to ask these kinds of questions about a heavily memed brawl involving a folding chair and a person known only as “Black Aquaman,” but this is exactly when we should be asking them. It’s the constant policing and challenging of ordinary Black existence by the white establishment — through microaggressions, or macroaggressions, like writing an entire song about how badly you want to lynch outsiders — that leads to the fomentation of anger that spills over into protest. That then gets used to justify more policing and challenging of ordinary Black existence.

That’s why the Montgomery brawl was, on a level, a brilliant deconstruction of the lie behind “Try That in a Small Town”: It effortlessly destroyed the song’s flimsily veiled conceit that the “community” that needs protection is that of innocent white people being besieged by scary Black protesters.

Perhaps that’s also why Aldean’s song, though it had a brief stint atop the Billboard Hot 100 after all the controversy surrounding it broke, immediately plummeted a full 20 slots. This was reportedly one of the biggest drops in history, and the biggest ever for a song that didn’t debut at No. 1.

The deepest irony of all this is that Jason Aldean — who grew up in the big town of Macon, Georgia, and now resides in the bigger town of Nashville — tries to court “ that small-town vibe ” without ever delving into what the vibe actually is. Anyone who’s from a small Southern town understands exactly what he’s referencing.

Like anywhere, small towns are full of wonderful individual people and affirming communities. But also like anywhere — and perhaps even a little more often than anywhere, given their size and emphasis on the collective — they can be subject to toxic groupthink. When the idea of a small town is freighted with notions of an “us” and a “them,” notions that can distort a sense of self and what exactly needs to be defended, they can also be as alienating, dangerous, and violent as anywhere else on earth.

That’s why narratives of Black defiance are all the more crucial as representations of what real community can be. A sweet tea party, indeed.

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