News-Record.com

The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer -- now owned by the same company -- published a phenomenal 16-page special section today, "The Ghosts of 1898." Written by historian Tim Tyson, it recounts the race riot in Wilmington before the turn of the century, its roots and historical tentacles.

In the name of white supremacy, this well-ordered mob burned the offices of the local black newspaper, murdered perhaps dozens of black residents -- the precise number isn't known -- and banished many successful black citizens and their so-called "white nigger" allies. A new social order was born in the blood and the flames, rooted in what The News and Observer's publisher, Josephus Daniels, heralded as "permanent good government by the party of the White Man."

The Wilmington race riot of 1898 was a crucial turning point in the history of North Carolina. It was also an event of national historical significance. Occurring just two years after the Supreme Court had sanctioned "separate but equal" segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson, the riot signaled the embrace of an even more virulent racism, not merely in Wilmington, but across the United States.

N&O editor note here. Charlotte's here.

On Sunday, we plan to run an overview story that Tyson wrote.