At a time when racial issues seem at the forefront of society, perhaps it is well to look to the past where simple people found the will to overcome great odds. They did it with dignity and poise, but most of all with their feet and fortitude.
Dorothy Counts was 15 when she integrated into Harding High School in Charlotte on Sept. 4, 1957. The school system was complying with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling which mandated school desegregation three years earlier. Several other African American students did the same thing across the district at other schools. Countsâ story appeared across the nation in newspapers. One photo taken by photographer Douglass Martin won a World Press Photo of the Year award.