Athens Banner-Herald | Gainesville Times
Former Georgia state trooper Allen Campbell met Tuesday with Todd Robertson, who photographed a child in a Ku Klux Klan robe looking at Campbell two decades ago.
- Photo courtesy Lee Shearer/Athens Banner-Herald
“The State Patrol made me be there. His momma and daddy made him be there,” Campbell tells the Athens Banner-Herald’s Lee Shearer. Campbell remembered being “ticked off” about being at the rally, but less because of its racial implications than when it occurred.
“It was the last holiday of the summer. But here I am at a Ku Klux Klan rally in Gainesville, Ga., protecting the rights of the Ku Klux Klan,” he said.
Robertson’s picture, which recently found new life via social media, originally ran in the Gainesville (Ga.) Times. The paper’s Jeff Gill went to the meeting, too, and reports Campbell said he initially “didn’t even see the kid, didn’t know he was there.” The Times also has video of the meeting.
Asked why the photo is still getting shared, Campbell said:
“Any kind of stuff like that sells. I don’t think there would have been that much reaction to it if that had been a white trooper standing there.”
Robertson told Shearer he wishes he knew what happened to the kid: “It would be nice to know he’s moved beyond that.”
Previously: How KKK rally image found new life 20 years after it was published
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