For 10 years, I have been moving toward the idea of grassroots reporting, covering urban and rural life from the ground up. My first attempt at this kind of reporting was The Field, a self-published tabloid that covered events and people in the Greater Plainfield, N.J., area, my adopted hometown. The Field was a one-time experiment that went out to 33,000 households and was well-received. Five years ago, I left the professional mainstream newspaper business to pursue a way of getting to the root of this country's socioeconomic problems though interviews, observations and experiences with individuals currently living in real-life struggles and triumphs. This project is also the fruition of the seeds of self-discovery planted in me while I was a student at North Carolina A&T State University. I t was there that four students who would one day alter the course of history staged sit-ins to protest restaurants that would not serve black Americans. They became symbols of the Civil Rights Movement and a model for the struggle for dignity and equal rights. As the grandson and great-grandson of poor tenant farmers who lived through those times, I believe those alumni of years past who risked their lives for a better life charted a path for me to carry on where they left off by being socially responsible for my community and working to serve the larger world.