It's tempting to see Joe Bass Jr., 12, wounded by a gunshot and lying on a Newark, New Jersey, street, as a symbol. And maybe he is. Maybe he is a symbol of America's broken and unfulfilled promises about poverty and race and education and liberty. But whether he's a symbol or not, what's undeniable is that he's a kid, a young boy, shot, lying in his own blood on a filthy street. This sort of unblinking, shocking, intensely problematic cover reminded LIFE readers that, occasionally, the world we share is an awful place.