Trooper in famous photo just wished he were somewhere else
Trooper Allen Campbell wasn’t thinking deep thoughts about race relations when he peered down at the small child in front of him, providing photographer Todd Robertson with the subject matter for a photograph that has become an iconic image of American race relations since Robertson pushed the shutter on that Labor Day weekend in 1992.
Robertson’s photo shows a small boy dressed up in a miniature Ku Klux Klan robe and reaching out in fascination to touch his own reflection in Georgia State Patrol trooper Campbell’s shiny riot shield.
Campbell, 61, didn’t think much about the irony of the situation, he said in an interview with reporters Tuesday at Gainesville’s State Patrol Post 6.
“I didn’t even see the kid. I was just looking down to see what was bumping on my shield. And when I looked down, there was this little kid in a Klan uniform. He saw his reflection in the riot shield. He was tracing his outline,” said Campbell, who met photographer Robertson for the first time Tuesday.
