I wonder if Leroy Smith will be invited to the White House for a beer or held as a model to be emulated like Trayvon has been


Black state official 'overwhelmed' by viral photo response
Associated Press By SEANNA ADCOX
July 22,2015



COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Amid angry demonstrations over the Confederate flag last weekend, a quiet gesture of human kindness unfolded on the steps to South Carolina's Statehouse: A white man overcome by the sweltering heat and wearing a Nazi swastika on his T-shirt was escorted to rest and shelter by a black man wearing an officer's uniform.
Related Stories

That man in the uniform was Leroy Smith, who runs the state Department of Public Safety, and a photo of his Saturday encounter with the man wearing the swastika has gone viral on the Internet.

Smith said Wednesday that he didn't think twice about assisting the ailing man.

"I saw a man who needed some help, and I was going to help him," Smith told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Smith said the man in the photo was actually the second demonstrator he helped up the Statehouse steps in the 100-degree heat, as tensions between white supremacists and counter-protesters behind police barricades mounted.

...................................................

The first white demonstrator they helped climb the steps and enter the air-conditioned Statehouse could walk on his own. The second clearly could not, Smith said.

"He was struggling, fatigued, appeared to be lethargic. I knew there was no way he could make it up the steps on his own," Smith said. So Smith coached him up the steps, putting his right hand on his arm and his left arm around his body.

Smith didn't get the man's name, and they had no extended conversation.

"He told me he wasn't from around here. I told him it gets hot in South Carolina," Smith recalled.

Both demonstrators they escorted were treated inside by local emergency workers.

...............................................

Smith said, "I've just been overwhelmed" by the response to the photo.

At the time, he said, he didn't think about it. He was just doing his job. But he realizes why the photo attracted so much attention: "There was a KKK rally and a public servant law enforcement officer showed love and compassion in the heat of that."

http://news.yahoo.com/black-official-say...-140958076.html