Viral image
Viral image
stated on June 25, 2020 in a Facebook post:

Old photo shows Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and his mother wearing KKK garb.

Pants on Fire!

Image of toddler in KKK garb isn’t of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. It was taken before he was born

By Samantha Putterman
June 30, 2020

If your time is short

  • The photograph was taken before Kemp was born.
See the sources for this fact-check

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is not the toddler photographed wearing a Ku Klux Klan outfit with his mother.

But some posts on Facebook are sharing an old photo that says this is the case.

The black-and-white image shows a young boy and a woman wearing KKK attire and displays text that says, “Just so you know this is Governor Kemp and his Mother.”

The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) 

There is no evidence the image shows Georgia’s current governor, or his mother. 

The original photograph appears on Getty Images with a caption that notes that the identities of the woman and child are unknown.

Getty notes that the image was created on April 27, 1956. Brian Kemp wasn’t born until Nov. 2, 1963, so it’s not possible that he could be the boy pictured.

We rate this miscaptioned photo Pants on Fire!

Our Sources

Facebook post, June 25, 2020

Getty Images, Woman Dressing her Son in KKK Attire, April 27, 1956