The N&O's recent examination of the 1898 Wilmington race riot -- and the newspaper's role in it -- was not the normal newspaper fare.

It was out of the ordinary for the paper to hire an outside historian to write the story and publish it in a special section. It was not ordinary to partner with other papers to produce and distribute the work. And it was especially unusual for a newspaper to dissect, in unflinching detail, its own role in a sorry chapter of American history.

The News & Observer hired historian Timothy Tyson, a visiting professor at Duke, to write the 16-page section, "The Ghosts of 1898," which was published as an insert on Nov. 17. The section, all or in part, also was published in The Charlotte Observer, The Wilmington Star-News, The Fayetteville Observer, The Greensboro News & Record and The Roanoke Rapids Daily Herald. That's more than 600,000 potential readers.

Published separately from the section were articles, produced by The Charlotte Observer, that looked at today's descendants of Wilmington families harmed by the riot. The N&O did a separate story about its own evolution from a voice of white supremacy to one of social justice. And The N&O and The Charlotte Observer published editorials apologizing for their sins of 108 years earlier.

Tyson's history was hard-hitting and unsparing of The N&O and founder Josephus Daniels. As described by Tyson, Daniels used his newspaper to foment the racial hatred that fueled the Wilmington riot. An unknown number of black people were killed, more than a thousand were displaced and the multi-racial government of Wilmington was overthrown.

"Its aftermath," Tyson wrote, "witnessed the birth of the Jim Crow social order, the end of black voting rights and the rise of a one-party political system in the South that strangled the aspirations of generations of blacks and whites."

Such words reflect a judgmental rendering of history that departs from standard impartial newspaper journalism, and some readers were puzzled. Why delve back into this painful sore in the past of North Carolina and this newspaper?

In part, because we were asked to. The 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission, created by the General Assembly, issued a report earlier this year calling on newspapers that played roles in the 1898 events -- principally, the Raleigh and Charlotte papers -- to acknowledge that history and publicize it. Another reason, N&O editors said, was to lift a veil on a critical crossroads in time that affected North Carolina for decades but has received little attention in textbooks. The most common reaction I received from readers was: "I didn't know that."

Outsiders to whom I talked thought the project succeeded. Irving Joyner, a law professor at N.C. Central University and a member of the Race Riot Commission, praised the work and said it "indicated a seriousness on the part of The N&O about getting the information out to people and getting people to look at it from a number of different angles." He said, though, that he wished there had been collaboration with the state's African American-owned newspapers on the project. (Some were offered the opportunity to participate, but declined.)

Duke historian William H. Chafe, former president of the Organization of American Historians, said The N&O's project was a major contribution to public understanding of "the most pivotal event in North Carolina history and one of the most important events in American history." Chafe, a colleague and friend of Tyson, said the Wilmington riot "dashed to smithereens" the brightest experiment in biracial democracy that existed in America at the time.

James Leloudis, who teaches post-Civil War history at UNC-Chapel Hill, called the 1898 massacre "a tragic moment that circumscribes and limits the possibilities of the state and the region for decades to come."

Frank Daniels Jr., grandson of Josephus Daniels and a former N&O publisher, praised the work as well-written, though he wished it had put the events in more context. His grandfather was progressive in many respects, Daniels said, if not on race -- "nobody was."

"The hard thing in the story was to convey the fact this was 100 years ago, and what was a norm in those days would be totally unacceptable today," he said.

Some readers questioned the selection of Tyson to write the account. Prize-winning author of the civil rights memoir "Blood Done Sign My Name," Tyson is an outspoken social justice advocate who acknowledges strong views on the South's racist past. Steve Riley, the N&O editor who oversaw the project, said Tyson was chosen in part because of those credentials. "The reason we wanted someone from the outside was because it was going to be all about The N&O," he said. The account was edited by N&O editors for length and structure, but Tyson had final say over matters of content. Riley said he was most pleased with Tyson's ability to show why the history mattered. "I think the strength and power of Tim's story is to explain why buried history is dangerous," he said.

One lesson: that history is alive -- race can be used as a trump card to move voters, as was done with chilling effectiveness during the Jesse Helms era and as recently as this year in the Tennessee Senate race. As Leloudis said, "If we don't do this (revisit history), we rob ourselves of the capability of imagining alternatives in our own time."

Surprising to me, there was not a large response to "Ghosts of 1898," given its controversial nature and the prominent display over three days in The N&O. Most comments I heard were positive, and negative reaction related mostly to the recommendation of the Race Riot Commission that reparations be paid to descendants of Wilmington victims. "Ghosts of 1898" barely mentioned the idea, and Tyson told me he doesn't support reparations, except perhaps in a broad way to improve education and voting rights.

After the special section was published, I received a voice message from Raleigh reader Ruby Hinson saying, "I just don't understand the reason for it now, when we are struggling so for some reconciliation between the whites and blacks. To me, this seems like it's just stoking the fires of those old resentments and emotions and hatreds."

But when I called Hinson back, she'd had second thoughts. "I'm trying to get more perspective on it and I'm trying to maintain good will toward all mankind."

I don't think we could ask for more.

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