Tracing shadows, listening for echoes across 50 years

Fifty years ago the image of a Charlotte teenager surrounded by hate as she walked to school was a chronicle of a nation coming to grips with the law, tradition and culture of race. Today, the Charlotte Observer employs all its tools in casting the shadows of that famous photo forward.

From that single striking image flows a stream of multimedia – narrative, photography, video – designed to listen to the stories that echo across those 50 years. Move beyond the famous, regal face of Dorothy Counts: What happened to that boy behind her? To that one, pictured at the right?

What have they – and Charlotte – learned? And what about the rest of the country? Today the Observer guides us on a search for answers.