THE FOLDING CHAIR IS -AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN - A SYMBOL OF BLACK RESISTANCE

The Montgomery Riverfront Brawl, which was captured on video and uploaded to social media, erupted between a Black dock worker and several white men after he tried to get them to move their boat because it was parked in a space designated for a popular river boat, Harriet II.

The scourge of white violence had finally met its match: A folding chair. And it instantaneously became an icon of Black freedom fighting, spurring the creation of countless memes.

An even deeper dive into the history of the folding chair reveals just how powerful it is as a symbol of Black power and resistance. In 1911, a Black man named Nathaniel Alexander patented the design of his folding chair.

In the context of a time when Black people faced constant white violence and the act of being an inventor and patenting an invention boldly resisted the narratives and status quo that sought to dehumanize Black people.

It is this spirit of resistance that the folding chair has come to represent. And the hope that justice will prevail against the violence Black people face far too often. “Justice will be served,” Montgomery May Steven L. Reed said in a statement last Sunday.