“We are looking at issues that have been covered for a long time, but we’re looking at them at the root. We’re seeing people as complex people that control their own stories, and that’s really important,” City Bureau senior reporter Sarah Conway said.

In 1997, 13-year-old Lenard Clark was beaten into a coma simply for being Black in a White neighborhood. Chicago leaders began calling for racial reconciliation — a rapid turn that stuck with Yohance Lacour, then a fledgling journalist.