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29 March 2024

Icon of hope: Ferguson picture will touch you forever

Photographer Johnny Nguyen’s picture shows 12-year-old Devonte Hart during a Ferguson-related rally in Portland, Oregon, with tears streaming down his face in a heartfelt hug with a white police officer. (Twitter)

Published
By Staff with Agencies

It is a picture captured by freelance photographer Johnny Nguyen and it is being hailed online as the picture that will change the course of history in the US – or at least move a nation in the right direction.

It shows 12-year-old Devonte Hart during a Ferguson-related rally in Portland, Oregon, holding a sign that read ‘Free Hugs’.

The image Nguyen took shows Hart with tears streaming down his face 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, there 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.

Following the protest, Hart's parents Sarah and Jen Hart wrote a Facebook post that 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."
 

Hands Up
 


St. Louis Rams wide receiver Stedman Bailey (12), wide receiver Tavon Austin (11), tight end Jared Cook (89), wide receiver Chris Givens (13) and wide receiver Kenny Britt (81) put their hands up to show support for Michael Brown before a game against the Oakland Raiders at the Edward Jones Dome in St Louis November 30, 2014. The National Football League said on Monday it would not discipline the St. Louis Rams players who staged a show of solidarity with people angry about the controversial shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Five of the Rams emerged from the tunnel prior to their game Sunday with their hands raised, the same way some witnesses say 18-year-old Michael Brown was positioned before being fatally shot by officer Darren Wilson in August.Picture taken November 30, 2014. (REUTERS)

Protesters around the US demonstrated Monday with their hands in the air in tribute to Michael Brown, the young black man killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.

As part of the ‘Hands Up Walk Out’ campaign, thousands of protesters gathered at universities and workplaces for midday demonstrations around the time Brown was killed on August 9.

In New York, hundreds of young mostly white students sat for a minute of silence in Times Square before chanting "hands up, don't shoot" and "no justice no peace."

Signs at the demonstration read: "Jail killer cops," "Ferguson is everywhere," and "Black lives matter”.

The hands up gesture and the "hands up, don't shoot" slogan have been adopted by protesters in homage to what some witnesses said was Brown's last move before being shot.

"Our communities are hurting and justifiably angered," said Ferguson Action, the group that organized the demonstrations to protest a grand jury's decision not to charge 28-year-old Darren Wilson, the officer who killed Brown.

The group asked protesters to read out the names of "victims of police violence," such as 12-year-old Tamir Rice who was recently gunned down by police officers in Ohio while handling a toy pistol.

Other protests Monday took place across the country including in the states Massachusetts, California, Texas and Georgia. In the capital, Washington, dozens of people gathered outside the Justice Department.

The decision not to indict Wilson prompted riots in Ferguson and raised racial tensions across the country last week. Wilson had said he acted in self-defense.