5 best memes from the Montgomery Riverfront brawl and the historical significance behind them (2024)

One year ago today, dozens of Montgomery Riverfront boat passengers pulled their phones out as a brawl broke out on the dock, resulting in a Black celebratory cultural moment and hundreds of memes capturing each flash of the showdown.

The brawl began after a white group on two pontoon boats moored in the reserved space of the Harriott II Riverboat packed with passengers returning from a cruise on the Alabama River. Six white people from the pontoon boats started to argue with a Black co-captain, Dameion Pickett, of the Harriott II.

The white group soon attacked Pickett and quickly started a brawl they clearly weren’t prepared to finish.

Black passengers rallied together, some swam and others ran to the dock to defend Pickett and displayed a united front for justice while defending themselves against the white pontoon boat group.

August 5, 2023 not only created an unofficial holiday remembered as the Montgomery Boat Brawl but also birthed a celebration across social media connecting Black folks through moments of memeification.

On the anniversary of the brawl, Reckon pulled five of the best memes from that day, reminisced and dug deep to find the historical significance behind each of them.

Django folding chair meme

Memes of folding chairs took Black Twitter (X) by storm after one passenger used a lone white folding chair to defend himself during the brawl.

Videos of the Black male passenger wielding the chair in a Whack-A-Mole fashion soon morphed into other memes and used clips from movies like Django Unchained, a western action movie starring Jaime Foxx as Django, a formerly enslaved man that travels to Mississippi to free his wife.

This meme places the folding chair in Django’s hands during a scene from the movie featuring Jaime Foxx’s character whipping a white, brutal overseer. While this meme resonated with many Black folks it also brought about questions as to who invented the folding chair.

Nathaniel Alexander, a Black man, invented and patented the folding chair in 1911.

This history continued to fuel more meme’s during the aftermath of the Montgomery Boat Brawl that uplifted the name and invention of Alexander and how his creation not only seated people for decades but now also protected Black folks.

Read more: Ancestors are about that healing action. The Montgomery brawl proves that.

Super powers/Avengers meme

As more Black passengers made their way to the dock to defend the co-captain, Pickett, they squared up against the white pontoon boat group with wide stances and fists at the ready to both throw a jab and protect their face.

Meme queens quickly took photos and videos like this and recreated them with superhero-like effects surrounding the Black passengers as they arrived on the scene like orange circular portal rings similar to the ones Marvel character, Dr. Strange, used to appear and disappear.

Several people reshared creations of this meme adding sub-tweets and comments like, ‘Avengers assemble.’

This meme was reminiscent of a Black Twitter conversation that expanded into a cultural and comical anniversary, the ‘Negro Solstice.’ The Negro Solstice was said to begin on December 21, 2020, marking the start of winter in the Northern Hemisphere – winter solstice – and the day Black people were supposedly receiving superpowers.

In 2020 and every year since on Dec. 21, memes of Black folks with super powers go viral as social media users share #NegroSolstice. Now similar posts from the Montgomery Boat Brawl are used to bring attention to the cultural phenomenon around Negro Solstice and jovial memes of Black folks with super powers.

The Sugar Shack meme

Many Black households grew up seeing The Sugar Shack, a historically Black painting by Ernest Eugene Barnes, Jr., as a symbol of unity and Black joy.

The Sugar Shack illustrates elongated figures dancing in a crowded Black music hall in segregated mid-century North Carolina. The painting was most famously seen on the cover of Motown star Marvin Gaye’s album I Want You and at the end of the 1970s Black sitcom Good Times.

After the Montgomery Boat Brawl, the painting resurfaced with a slightly new look. Evident changes like some of the elongated dancing figures now held folding chairs. Many of the dance hall’s banners were also exchanged in the meme with new words to commemorate the brawl, one read: The Alabama Sweet Tea Party.

The slight changes and amplification of the meme circulated a reminder of the Black joy it brought folks in the 1970s when The Sugar Shack was first painted to its latest memeification.

Hat as bat signal meme

When co-captain Pickett threw his hat in the air as the white pontoon boat group approached him threateningly, many Black passengers took that as the signal that something was about to go down and that Pickett might need back up.

Memes of hats as bat signals began circulating social media and quickly became a symbol to signify help, especially in situations of anti-Blackness.

Signals and gestures like what Pickett did on Aug. 5, aren’t new to the Black community and have often been seen as survival instincts connected to the enslavement of African people.

Many times Black folks use other gestures like a head nod to acknowledge each other’s presence, especially in a space that has very few Black folks and a presence of anti-Blackness.

While these gestures may seem subtle, they carry an unspoken rallying cry that alarmed several Black passengers enough to join Pickett in defense against the white pontoon boat group.

Aquaman meme

As soon as co-captain Pickett threw his hat in the air on Aug. 5, a 16-year-old boy, named Aaren, was filmed jumping into the river and vigorously swimming toward the dock to aid Pickett.

After passengers started sharing video footage of him, social media coined him “a real-life Aquaman” and also referred to him as “Aqua-Mayne.” Memes, t-shirts and videos began to explode celebrating his bravery and swimming ability.

Often notions like ‘Black people don’t swim’ have stemmed from segregated swimming areas and the enduring trauma of Transatlantic Slave Trade contributing to some Black folks not knowing how to swim.

After witnessing clips of Aaren in the river, many Black folks felt inspired to take swimming lessons now.