the Web Editors

On Sept. 28, 6-year-old Jacob Hall was shot on the playground of Townville Elementary School in South Carolina. He died Oct. 1, after spending days on life support.

At his memorial service Oct. 5, Hall, who is said to have loved superheroes, was surrounded by superheroes of his own — family, friends, and classmates of Hall's arrived in capes and costumes to remember his life and to help reassure eachother that "the good will win," reports ABC News. 

1. Using Sound to Explore One of Syria’s Most Notorious Prisons

“The user is immersed in both an auditory and visual experience narrated by the detainees. As you explore the different locations you can hear water dripping through the pipes, the faint sound of birds or the footsteps of approaching guards.”

2. Social Media Got You Down? Be More Like Beyonce.

I mean … isn’t that always the answer to the question? But really, a very important read for the swipe generation.

3. Hip Hop and Liberation of Women in Kabul

How some women are defying deprecated Taliban mores and making their voices heard.

On Sept. 27, D.C. officials released video of Terrence Sterling’s final moments after being shot by a police officer on Sept. 11. Sterling was on his motorcycle when it struck the door of a police cruiser. Officer Brian Trainer shot him shortly afterward.

1. WATCH: 6-Year-Old Boy Asks Obama to Bring Syrian Boy to Live With Him

You need this today.

2. The Price of Mass Deportation

The U.S. could lose $4.7 trillion if every undocumented worker were deported.

3. Michelle Alexander Leaving Law to Teach at Union Theological Seminary

The New Jim Crow author says, of her decision, “This is not simply a legal problem, or a political problem, or a policy problem. At its core, America’s journey from slavery to Jim Crow to mass incarceration raises profound moral and spiritual questions about who we are, individually and collectively, who we aim to become, and what we are willing to do now.”

The Los Angeles Times reports one man critically wounded and at least seven more injured in the protests, which continued for a second night in the face of growing tensions and anger over police handling of the circumstances of Scott's death. Protesters threw rocks and smashed windows, and police officers in riot gear fired tear gas and nonlethal bullets into the crowd.

Protests erupted in Charlotte, N.C., after a black man was shot and killed by police while they were serving a warrant to a different person, according to The Root. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department released a statement saying Keith Lamont Scott, 43, was armed and "posed an imminent deadly threat to the officers who subsequently fired their weapon striking the subject." Witnesses and family members say Scott was unarmed and holding a book, among them, the victim's daughter, Lyric Scott, who streamed via Facebook Live from the scene. 

1. ‘We’re the Only Plane in the Sky’

Where was the president in the eight hours after the Sept. 11 attacks? The strange, harrowing journey of Air Force One, as told by the people who were on board.

2. White House Women Want to Be in the Room Where It Happens

Shine theory in action. (And OK, we know you read this one. But it’s worth re-reading/committing to memory. See you in the boardroom Monday.)

3. The Falling Man

The instantly iconic, excruciatingly terrible photo of a man falling headfirst from a burning World Trade Center ran in many newspapers on Sept. 12, 2001, and then never again. Tom Junod’s heartbreaking quest to identify the man is one of Esquire’s most recognizable pieces (first published in 2003, they bring it out, slightly polished, every Sept. 11). "Maybe he didn't jump at all, because no one can jump into the arms of God. Oh, no. You have to fall."

"When we allow one faith community to be targets then we open the doors for others to be targeted. I believe the worst is yet to come unless more people actively intervene with their voices, their votes, and in public acts of solidarity with their Muslim neighbors."

An effort by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to stop the construction of a four-state Dakota Access oil pipeline was denied by a federal judge on Sept. 9, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Shortly following the court decision, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Army, and the U.S. Department of the Interior issued a joint statement ordering suspension of the construction of the pipeline.