Dameion Pickett said someone had a private pontoon boat illegally positioned in the Harriott II’s space as it ended a dinner tour, preventing the riverboat from safely docking.

The riverboat worker at the center of the viral brawl at Riverfront Park in Montgomery, Alabama, nearly two months ago is speaking publicly about details of that day for the first time.

Dameion Pickett, a Black co-captain and the lead deckhand of Harriott II, told Robin Roberts on “Good Morning America” that he went to work on Aug. 5 expecting just another nice, peaceful cruise. He said he was shocked at the violent attack he endured while “just doing my job,” according to ABC News.

Pickett recalled the Harriott II tried to dock after a dinner tour but a private pontoon boat had illegally parked in its space, making docking hazardous. Pickett told ABC that he could have docked but would have hit some vessels and been held responsible.

Pickett and witnesses on the Harriott II made several unsuccessful attempts to ask the pontoon boat’s owner to relocate it, ABC reported. At that point, Pickett said, he left the riverboat “on the captain’s orders” and went to move the pontoon boat by himself.

“I was, like, ‘I’m just doing my job,’” he recalled. “After we dock, we don’t mind y’all staying there, but not at this time while we’re trying to dock.’”

The video shows a man confronted and punched Pickett shortly after he moved the boat. From there, others joined in, all of whom were white, the video shows. The situation escalated, with Pickett saying he had to protect himself.

“This man just put his hand on me,” Pickett said. “I was, like … it’s my job, but I’m still defending myself at the same time. So when he touched me, I was, like, ‘It’s on.’”

The incident led to a massive brawl, prompting several Black eyewitnesses to come to Pickett’s defense.

Aaren Hamilton-Rudolph, 16, who was in his second week on the job, was one of the first people to swim to Pickett’s defense. He said everyone was recording the incident, but no one was helping — and he “couldn’t just watch and sit around and just let him get beat on,” ABC News reported.

Roshein “RahRah” Carlton also rushed to Pickett’s side, saying it’s “our duty, as our coworker, as a team, to go and aid and assist him.”

Source: Montgomery riverboat worker speaks out for first time since viral brawl

American Civil rights activist Claudette Colvin pictured on April 7, 1998. | Source: The Washington Post / Getty

A civil rights icon who had been on probation since 1955 over her arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Alabama has finally had her arrest record expunged following decades of outcry.

Claudette Colvin was 15 years old when she got arrested for not moving to the back of that bus in Montgomery, Alabama, on that fateful day when she and another Black teenager didn’t realize they were sitting next to two white girls, a big no-no in the south during the time.

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Colvin’s arrest came about nine months before the Montgomery bus boycott began following the arrest of Rosa Parks for the same Jim Crow-era offense.

Now 82, nearly 67 years later, a judge in Montgomery has granted Colvin’s petition to have her arrest record wiped clean, CBS News reported.

“My record was expunged,” Colvin told “CBS Mornings” in an exclusive interview on Thursday. “And my name was cleared. And I’m no longer a juvenile delinquent at 82.”

It was on March 2, 1955, when Colvin and her friend were told to move to the back of the bus. After Colvin refused, the bus driver immediately called the police. Once police arrived on the scene they began to physically remove Clovin from the bus. According to the police report, Clovin kicked and scratched an officer during the incident.

She was immediately arrested, charged with assault, and her case was sent to juvenile court. The judge found her delinquent and placed her on probation.

Before her record was expunged this week, Colvin said she still believed she was on probation. Colvin has never received info that states she has completed her probation and said her family constantly worries that police could come to get her at any time.

“My conviction for standing up for my constitutional right terrorized my family and relatives who knew only that they were not to talk about my arrest and conviction because people in town knew me as ‘that girl from the bus,’” said Colvin in an interview with the Associated Press.

Source: Freedom Fighter Claudette Colvin’s 1955 Arrest Record Finally Expunged After She Stayed Seated On Segregated Bus