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Photo Of Young Boy Hugging Officer At Ferguson Rally Goes Viral And Becomes ‘Icon Of Hope’

Emotional moment between little boy and cop
Emotional moment between lit­tle boy and cop

As pho­tos around the web show images of nation­wide protests in reac­tion to the events in Ferguson, Missouri, one par­tic­u­lar image has received wide­spread atten­tion. Earlier this week, free­lance pho­tog­ra­ph­er Johnny Nguyen cap­tured a pho­to of 12-year-old Devonte Hart dur­ing a Ferguson-relat­ed ral­ly in Portland, Oregon. Hart, an African-American boy, was hold­ing a sign that read “Free Hugs,” and the image Nguyen took shows Hart with tears stream­ing down his face while in a heart­felt hug with a white police officer.

“It was an inter­est­ing jux­ta­po­si­tion that had to be cap­tured. It fired me up,” Nguyen told The Huffington Post on Sunday. “I start­ed shoot­ing and before I knew it, they were hug­ging it out. I knew I had some­thing spe­cial, some­thing powerful.”

Nguyen said the pho­to has since been shared more than 400,000 times on Facebook and repost­ed on more than 68,000 Tumblr accounts.

According to The Oregonian, which was the first out­let to pub­lish the pho­to, the offi­cer pic­tured in the image is Portland Police Sgt. Bret Barnum, who report­ed­ly saw Hart hold­ing his sign and called him over to engage in a quick con­ver­sa­tion about the protest, school and life.

Jordan Johnson, left, 8, from Washington, Camille Chrysostom of Bowie, Md., and Jaimee Swift of Philadelphia, observe a moment of silence at Meridian Hill Park, also known as Malcom X Park, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2014 in Washington, to protest the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Mo. Vigils were held across the country for people organizers say died at the hands of police brutality. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Jordan Johnson, left, 8, from Washington, Camille Chrysostom of Bowie, Md., and Jaimee Swift of Philadelphia, observe a moment of silence at Meridian Hill Park, also known as Malcom X Park, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2014 in Washington, to protest the fatal shoot­ing of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Mo. Vigils were held across the coun­try for peo­ple orga­niz­ers say died at the hands of police bru­tal­i­ty. (AP Photo/​Alex Brandon)

Barnum then asked Hart for a hug — and it was dur­ing this moment that Nguyen cap­tured the touch­ing pho­to that he shared with the world.

“I’ve been told this pho­to has become an icon of hope in regards to race in America,” Nguyen said.

“Prior to that day, I would scroll through the Internet and see the pho­tos of images out of Ferguson, which all showed some vio­lence and anger — some even to the point of hatred and destruc­tion. This was the first pho­to I saw that showed some­thing pos­i­tive. It showed humanity.”

Following the protest, Hart’s par­ents — Sarah and Jen Hart — wrote a Facebook postthat detailed more about their son and the events that led to the moment cap­tured in the photo.

“My son has a heart of a gold, com­pas­sion beyond any­thing I’ve ever expe­ri­enced, yet strug­gles with liv­ing fear­less­ly when it comes to the police and peo­ple that don’t under­stand the com­plex­i­ty of racism that is preva­lent in our soci­ety,” the post read. “It was one of the most emo­tion­al­ly charged expe­ri­ences I’ve had as a mother.”

As the pho­to con­tin­ues to spread across the web, Nguyen said he hopes it will pro­vide some peo­ple with a sense of peace along with a mes­sage of love and compassion.

“In order to move on and progress toward real change, we need every rea­son for hope that can be gar­nered,” he said.

“We all have hurt in our heart but we have to turn that hurt into hope, hope for human­i­ty. We need to find a way to come togeth­er and find a com­mon ground and find peace.”

In doing so, Nguyen reflects on one par­tic­u­lar quote from civ­il rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. that he believes real­ly dri­ves the mes­sage home.

“MLK once said: ‘Darkness can­not dri­ve out dark­ness; only light can do that. Hate can­not dri­ve out hate; only love can do that.’ ” Nguyen recit­ed. “I think that’s what my pho­to has done.“Huffingtonpost​.com