More than 200,000 coronavirus deaths. Economic meltdown. Ongoing protests over racial bias.
The AP is taking a road trip across the country to look at the issues that have exploded onto the national consciousness this year through the eyes of different regions and different Americans. An AP reporter, photographer and videojournalist are going to Ohio and Illinois, to Kentucky and Georgia and Mississippi, and then out West to explore what has defined 2020, even as the most divisive election in decades is looming.
The AP started the trip in the Appalachian foothills of southeast Ohio, where President Lyndon Johnson in 1964 first mentioned the Great Society, perhaps the most audacious push to remake America since World War II. The same people who a generation ago believed in their presidents promises to change their region forever now have a deep distrust of Washington – and a defiant sense that they are on their own.
At a time when the country is bitterly torn and crises are piling up, the AP found that the feeling of isolation in this corner of Ohio is more profound than ever. For many here, coronavirus deaths and racial protests are mostly just images on TV from a distant America. To explain this increasingly foreign America, some have turned to suspicion, anger and conspiracy theories.
The first story in the Looking For America series will be released at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 1. It will include a text story of 3,000 words, an abridged version of 900 words, photos and video. The stories in the series are by reporter Tim Sullivan, photojournalist Wong Maye-E and videojournalist Noreen Nasir.
For more information, please contact International Enterprise Editor Mary Rajkumar at [email protected].
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor
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