On August 5th, 2023, a large brawl broke out on the docks of Montgomery, Alabama at Riverfront Park1. The fight appeared to start when a Black dock worker objected to a pontoon boat preventing a larger river boat from docking and was attacked by a group of white men2. Several other white individuals joined the altercation, which escalated to a brawl, attacking the Black man. Additional people joined the brawl in an apparent attempt to defend the dock worker1. Police in Montgomery issued four arrest warrants for individuals involved in the attack on the Black dock worker2. The incident is still under investigation and more information is expected to be released by the police department2.
It is important to note that this port has a deep history. Commerce Street, where Riverfront Park is located, was central to the operation of Montgomery’s slave trade. Enslaved people were marched in chains up the street from the riverfront and railroad station to the slave auction site or to local slave depots. Warehouses were critical to the city’s slave trade. Slave traders confined enslaved people in warehouses until they could be sold during slave auctions3.