North Carolina’s flag has a blue union, a white star, gold “N” and “C” letters, and red-and-white horizontal bars. Its current design was adopted in 1885 and carries two dates: May 20, 1775, a disputed Mecklenburg tradition, and April 12, 1776, the date of the Halifax Resolves.
Those dates give the flag its historical character. One reflects a tradition that remains disputed, while the other records a documented action by North Carolina’s Revolutionary-era government.
Quick Facts About the North Carolina State Flag
- Official design adopted: 1885
- Current proportions: 3:2, meaning the length is one and one-half times the width
- Colors named in the law: blue, red, white, gilt, and black lettering on the scrolls
- Upper date: May 20, 1775
- Lower date: April 12, 1776
- Official state salute adopted: 2007
North Carolina State Flag Design
North Carolina law gives a detailed description of the flag. At the hoist, or staff side, is a blue vertical panel called the union. Centered on that panel is a white star. A gilt “N” appears to the left of the star, and a gilt “C” appears to the right.
A semicircular gilt scroll above the star reads “May 20th 1775.” A matching scroll below the star reads “April 12th 1776.” The rest of the flag, known as the fly, is divided into two equal horizontal bars: red on top and white below.
In ordinary prose, the dates are commonly written with commas. The flag’s scrolls use the traditional wording “May 20th 1775” and “April 12th 1776.”
The current legal proportion is three units long for every two units wide. In simpler terms, a North Carolina flag should be one and one-half times as long as it is tall. The state statute also specifies the placement and wording of the star, letters, scrolls, and bars, which is why those small details matter when choosing a flag for a school, civic display, business, or home.
The 1861 Flag and the 1885 Redesign
North Carolina did not have a formally recognized state flag until 1861. During the state’s secession convention, delegates adopted a flag on June 22, 1861. Its design differed sharply from the one flown today: it had a red field with a white star, the date “May 20th 1775” above the star, and “May 20th 1861” below it. Its fly carried a blue bar above a white bar.
That 1861 flag remained in use until 1885. On February 5 of that year, Brigadier General Johnstone Jones, then North Carolina’s adjutant general, introduced legislation for a replacement. The General Assembly ratified the new design on March 9, 1885.
The 1885 design changed the field at the hoist from red to blue, added the gold “N” and “C,” and replaced the secession date of May 20, 1861 with April 12, 1776. The change shifted the flag’s focus away from secession and toward North Carolina’s Revolutionary-era history.
The Disputed Mecklenburg Date
The upper scroll refers to the alleged Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. According to a long-held North Carolina tradition, residents of Mecklenburg County declared themselves independent from Great Britain on May 20, 1775, more than a year before the Continental Congress adopted the national Declaration of Independence.
There are some interesting facts to consider. No original May 20 document is known to survive. The text associated with the Mecklenburg Declaration first appeared publicly in 1819, decades after the alleged event, and was said to have been reconstructed from memory after original records were lost in a fire.
The surviving evidence has led many historians to question whether a separate Mecklenburg Declaration was adopted on May 20, 1775. They generally connect the tradition to the Mecklenburg Resolves, a documented set of anti-British resolutions adopted in Charlotte on May 31, 1775. Those resolves rejected the authority of Parliament, treated royal officials as enemies to the county, and established temporary local governance principles while North Carolina’s Provincial Congress met.
May 20 remained important in North Carolina public memory and was retained when the flag was redesigned in 1885. The flag preserves that historical tradition even as the evidence behind the alleged declaration remains debated.
The Halifax Resolves and April 12, 1776
The lower scroll marks the Halifax Resolves, adopted unanimously by North Carolina’s Fourth Provincial Congress in Halifax on April 12, 1776. This date rests on firm documentary ground and marks one of North Carolina’s clearest contributions to the movement for American independence.
The Resolves authorized North Carolina’s delegates to the Second Continental Congress, including William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, and John Penn, to vote for independence from Great Britain. North Carolina was the first colony whose governing body formally authorized its delegates to support independence in the Continental Congress.
The Halifax Resolves were not the national Declaration of Independence, which came on July 4, 1776. Instead, they gave North Carolina’s delegates formal authority to support independence in Congress. When lawmakers adopted the current flag in 1885, they replaced the former 1861 secession date with April 12, 1776.
Colors, Symbols, and Legal Specifications
The star and the “N” and “C” identify the state, while the two dated scrolls connect the design to North Carolina’s Revolutionary-era history.
North Carolina law specifies the flag’s colors, arrangement, lettering, star, and dimensions. However, the statute does not assign an official symbolic meaning to each color. Interpretations of what the blue, red, or white represent are therefore traditional or historical interpretations, rather than meanings established by law.
The 1991 Proportion Change
The core design has remained in place since 1885, but the General Assembly made technical updates in 1991. The earlier law had set the flag’s length at one-third more than its width. The 1991 revision established the current one-and-one-half-to-one proportion.
The revision also removed commas from the dates in the statutory description. The dates themselves, the blue union, the white star, the gold letters, and the red-over-white fly did not change.
The North Carolina Flag in Public Life
State law has long called for North Carolina flags to be displayed at state institutions, public buildings, and county courthouses. For state institutions and political subdivisions, the law also directs that the North Carolina flag be handled, displayed, stored, and respectfully disposed of in accordance with the federal Flag Code.
In 2007, North Carolina adopted an official salute to its flag:
“I salute the flag of North Carolina and pledge to the Old North State love, loyalty, and faith.”
Displaying the North Carolina Flag
There are many options for how to display your flag. For outdoor use, see the North Carolina state flag for outdoor use. For indoor presentations, compare the North Carolina state flag with fringe and the North Carolina state flag with pole sleeve. If you want a complete display, the North Carolina indoor flag set with adjustable flagpole and North Carolina State Flag Set with Deluxe Oak Flagpole offer ready-made setups.
Bring North Carolina History to Your Display
North Carolina’s flag preserves two different kinds of history: the contested Mecklenburg tradition represented by May 20, 1775, and the documented Halifax Resolves represented by April 12, 1776. That tension is what makes the design historically distinctive.
Explore North Carolina flags from Flags USA for home, business, school, and civic displays.
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