The state has published a new book on the 1898 Wilmington race riot. It is called, not surprisingly, "A Day of Blood: The 1898 Wilmington Race Riot."

The book, by LeRae Umfleet, is being published by the Historical Publications Section of the N.C. Office of Archives and History and the African American Heritage Commission. Umfleet is chief of collections management for the state Department of Cultural Resources.

Umfleet is scheduled to talk about the book at 7:30 p.m. on Wed., Nov. 18, at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh.

Correction: Earlier post had incorrect date for reading at Quail Ridge Books. 

Gov. Mike Easley said he shouldn't be in the history books yet.

In a press conference this afternoon, the governor said it's too soon for his biography to be included in a state-produced history of North Carolina's governors.

When asked if he thought his staff should have heavily edited his entry, Easley demurred.

"I'm not going to touch that catfight at Cultural Resources with a 10-foot pole," he said.

He said the only things he knows about the book controversy are what he's read in the paper, but he thinks it's not right to write about history before it's, well, historic.

"The whole thing is idiotic to me," he said.

Most politicians would love a chance to edit their page in the history books.

Gov. Mike Easley’s staff actually did.

Last year, members of Easley’s press office heavily rewrote an entry on him in a book by state-employed historians on North Carolina’s governors.

Over several drafts, they deleted a reference to a failed U.S. Senate bid, speculation that he dislikes campaigning and a note that he had a boyhood reputation "for making mischief."

They added a quote from Easley about patriotism, a line about how he "successfully led" the state to a "new global economy" and the fact that USA Today once named him one of the country's top drug busters.

In the end, more than two-thirds of the final draft came from the governor's office.

Click here to read the first draft of the biography by historian Michael Hill, and here to read the published version as edited by the governor's office.