Mike Fannin, the president and editor of The Kansas City Star, in a letter from the editor about a six-part package on the paper reporting on its own history of racism:

Today we are telling the story of a powerful local business that has done wrong.

For 140 years, it has been one of the most influential forces in shaping Kansas City and the region. And yet for much of its early history — through sins of both commission and omission — it disenfranchised, ignored and scorned generations of Black Kansas Citians. It reinforced Jim Crow laws and redlining. Decade after early decade it robbed an entire community of opportunity, dignity, justice and recognition.

That business is The Kansas City Star.

That is one hell of a lede. Reporters and editors dug through their own archives, looking head on at their reporting, and comparing their coverage to the same stories in Black-owned papers. Obviously, an institution like The Star can’t change the past but owning up to it is crucial for making progress going forward. I hope more publications will do this kind of work.

In a similar vein, in 2018 The New York Times began publishing the obituaries of women who’d been forgotten in their Overlooked section.