Anxieties abounded in Columbia, South Carolina on Saturday as white supremacists rallied to protest the removal of the Confederate flag from the statehouse. The friction culminated in a Ku Klux Klan group facing off against a New Black Panthers protest, which resulted in five arrests.

Yet not everyone on the scene allowed the tensions or the scorching summer heat to override their humanity and compassion.

One photograph taken at the rally depicts a black police officer helping an elderly white supremacist who was apparently battling heat exhaustion.

The unidentified white man in the photo is wearing a T-shirt bearing a swastika and symbols associated with the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi group. Officer Leroy Smith is holding the white man’s arm as he helps him up a set of stairs to take refuge from the sun. Temperatures reached the upper 90s.

The photo was tweeted by Columbia photographer Rob Godfrey:

https://twitter.com/RobGodfrey/status/622494558249684992

This photograph is going viral on social media because of the example of forgiveness and compassion set by Smith. Many onlookers were surprised that a black officer would not hesitate to assist an outspoken white supremacist. But Smith said the photo shows “who we are in South Carolina.”

“I consider myself like every other officer who was out there braving the heat on Saturday to preserve and protect,” he said to the Inquisitr. He added that his obligation is to assist everyone, “regardless of the person’s skin color, nationality or beliefs ….”

Smith said he hopes that his example might help others to rise above their racism and hatred: “I hope this photo will be a catalyst for people to work to overcome some of the hatred and violence we have seen in our country in recent weeks.”

Smith’s noble example and words echo the sentiments expressed last month by some of his fellow South Carolinians after a white racist psychopath killed nine black people in a church. The tragedy happened in Charleston on June 17, and Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry said the response of the victims was “one of the most amazing stories in American history.” He wrote:

The members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston and the relatives of the victims of that church shooting showed the whole world the solution to our race-relations crisis—if only people would pay attention.

To understand the importance and the deep value of the example those victims set, watch Mr. Flurry’s Key of David program “Charleston, S.C.—How to Solve Race Relations.”