Unpaid historical reenactors

This week marked the second anniversary of the infamous Montgomery Riverfront Brawl, also known as “Fade in the Water” and the “Alabama Sweet Tea Party.” To refresh your memory, the brawl broke out after Damien Pickett, a black security guard, asked white boaters to move their boat. It was parked in the designated space for the city’s Harriott II riverboat which offers cruises on the Alabama River. Passengers onboard the Harriot II were not able to disembark because the personal watercraft was in its space. To make a long story short, the white boaters attacked a black employee and “all hell broke loose.”

Having lived most of my life in Alabama, a place where the Confederacy is still held dear, I am all too familiar with the myriad ways the ghost of Jim Crow rears its ugly head. I’ve been ignored, given dirty looks, nearly forced off sidewalks and straight called a “nigger” by a good ole genteel southern boy. Chilvarious right?  Why would someone call me that you ask? Because I had the audacity to walk in the predominately white neighborhood in which I lived. 

That moment was one of two in my lifetime where I can remember the collective jubilation of black folks.  The other instance was the election of the first black president of the United States, Barack Obama back in 2008. Given Alabama’s extensive and well documented history of  mistreating minorities, there was a sense of justice which  typically lacks. Historically, violence against black bodies has not only been acceptable, but celebrated. From beating and killing the enslaved, the sexual violation of enslaved women AND men, and  lynching, violence against black bodies has been deemed justifiable. Too many times police officers go unpunished for killing black people.  White men who take the law into their own hands acting as neo “pattyrollers” go free after extinguishing black lives.  Ahmad Abrey and Trayvon Martin succumbed to white supremacist violence perpetrated by individuals and sanctioned by the state.  No justice comes from the criminal justice system. 

So who expected justice to be meted out in the form of a folding chair? I certainly did not. That man, in that moment, with righteous indignation and the strength of the ancestors, singlehandly  brought white supremacy and entitlement, a centuries old problem, to its knees. In the grand scheme of things, will it change the world? No, but it gave us hope that maybe, someday, the underdog will come out victorious. It gave us hope for change like Obama did. It gave us a reminder of the strength in the collective. It gave us a reminder that the black freedom struggle is ongoing.   It gave us black aquaman, gut busting laughter, infinite memes, and a new place of pilgrimage and iconography. 

On that day, the day of our lord August 5th, 2023, we did overcome. 

Please consider this your reminder to continue to fight injustice wherever it may lie with whatever tools are at your disposal. And then be sure to reward yourself with an iced cold glass of Alabama sweet tea.

For further reading: 

Know their names: Black people killed by the police in the US

Montgomery riverfront brawl two years later: How each court case ended 

Interesting sidenote…. Indigenous peoples overcame the French at the riverfront in 1703.