A Texas man revealed that he got a tattoo of a folding chair on his arm to commemorate a brawl that broke out after a group of white men attacked a Black dockworker on a pier in Montgomery, Alabama, over the weekend.
The tattoo, which has gone viral on social media, is a nod to the weapon of choice used by the older Black man to fend off others involved in the fighting during the incident. Each side of the tattoo is inked with the date and location of the brawl.
The brawl broke out on the Montgomery Riverfront around 7 p.m. on Saturday. Video footage shows the fight took place on the pier itself, next to the Harriott II Riverboat attraction.
One bystander said the fight started after a security guard asked the group to move their boat so the larger riverboat could dock. Footage from the incident showed a small altercation between a few individuals grow into a mass fight as others attempted to intervene on either side.
Newsweek reached out to Don Kajuan, the Dallas-based musician who got the tattoo, and Camberry, the tattoo artist, via direct message on Instagram for comment on Wednesday.
The incident has reignited racial tensions in the birthplace of the American civil rights movement, with the group who started the attack derided by some as acting with racist intentions. Officials have said there was not strong enough evidence to bring racially based charges.
Mayor Steven Reed confirmed that law enforcement had detained "several reckless individuals for attacking a man who was doing his job," adding in a statement on Sunday: "This was an unfortunate incident which never should have occurred."
On Tuesday, the Montgomery Police Department announced the names of three suspects with outstanding arrest warrants linked to the brawl but said officers had initially taken 13 individuals into custody. The police force previously told Newsweek that more arrest warrants could be issued following a "review of additional video" of the incident.
One of the people Montgomery Police said they would like to speak to was 42-year-old Reggie Gray, who was seen wielding the folding chair during the mass altercation.
While many have viewed the incident seriously, some have made light of the brawl: a video of a group of people re-enacting the brawl by a pool garnered in excess of 10 million views on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Social media users reacted with a mix of praise, amusement and incredulity to Kajuan's permanent reminder of the event.
"Alright now, y'all done took the Montgomery s*** way too far now," an X user named Orlando Valentino posted in reaction to a video displaying the tattoo, which has been viewed 5.2 million times since being uploaded on Tuesday.
"I want my chair folded in the arms of a black man," an Instagram user wrote, in an apparent reference to the tattoo's depiction of the chair as being open on the crook of Kajuan's elbow.
Responding to the reaction on social media, Kajuan said he had "MARKED A DAY OF BLACK HISTORY" with the tattoo.
Meanwhile, the tattoo artist described the date of the brawl as the "Montgomery Alabama civil rights national holiday."
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About the writer
Aleks Phillips is a Newsweek U.S. News Reporter based in London. His focus is on U.S. politics and the environment. ... Read more
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