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He said he has done his best, proposing legislation to enact every one of the commission's recommendations. While he admits that most won't pass this session, he said they could come up again next year. And he said he is gaining support for adding the riot to public school history curriculum, with or without dedicated funding.

But he said commission members have failed to help him lobby, and that many of his fellow legislators are against acknowledging the past's lingering effects.

Fervid opposition

Even Wright's bill acknowledging the riot occurred faced fervent opposition. It passed 67-47.

Leo Daughtry, a Smithfield Republican, was one of those who voted against it. He said the legislature should concern itself with the issues of today: roads, public education, taxes. He said he would oppose any plan to fund remembrances of 1898, whether with a monument or with reparations to descendants of victims.

"I don't see where it would serve any purpose at this point to spend money on an event that occurred a hundred years ago that didn't affect any person living today," Daughtry said.

Commission members said they didn't expect all Wright's bills to pass. But they said they expected many to at least spark discussion, and they hoped that measures as simple as providing $10,000 for a monument to the riot would succeed this session.

Joyner, the law professor, said he is going to start looking for a new champion for the 1898 initiatives.

Rep. Earl Jones, a Greensboro Democrat, is co-sponsoring many of the bills and said this week that he will work for their passage, but so far he has let Wright take the lead. New Hanover County Sen. Julia Boseman, who helped lead the commission, didn't return phone calls seeking comment.

"Unless there is some effort to develop this with other legislators, these proposals will just die," Joyner said. "If they have not died already."

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