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Flag of North Carolina

The flag of North Carolina has a blue union at the staff holding a white star between the gilt letters N and C, with gold scrolls above and below bearing two dates, May 20th 1775 and April 12th 1776. The rest of the flag is two equal bars, red over white. The design was adopted in 1885, replacing the flag of 1861.

Verified October 23, 2026 against the state's law

Flag of North Carolina
Flag of North Carolina. Image: Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

What the flag shows

  • The blue union. At the staff, holding a white five-pointed star, with a gilt letter N to its left and a gilt C to its right.
  • The upper scroll. A gilt scroll above the star with the date May 20th 1775 in black letters, the traditional date of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. Historians dispute whether that declaration is authentic.
  • The lower scroll. A matching scroll below the star with April 12th 1776, the date of the Halifax Resolves, in which North Carolina’s Provincial Congress authorized its delegates to vote for independence.
  • The bars. Two bars of equal size, red above and white below.

By law the bars are as long as the union is tall, and the whole flag is one and a half times as long as it is wide. North Carolina’s official red and blue, set by a 1945 law, are the shades used in the US flag.

Before 1861

No colony-specific flag is known from colonial North Carolina. The English St. George’s Cross and, after 1707, the British Union flag were flown, and while locally made flags probably appeared during the Revolution, almost nothing is known of them.

The 1861 flag

On June 22, 1861, the secession convention ratified North Carolina’s first state flag, based on a suggestion by the Raleigh artist William G. Browne. It had a red union with a white star between scrolls dated May 20, 1775, and May 20, 1861, the day the state seceded, and a fly of a blue bar over a white bar.

The 1885 flag

In 1885 the General Assembly adopted the present design. It switched the union to blue, added the gilt N and C, replaced the 1861 date with April 12th 1776, and changed the fly to red over white. A 1991 amendment adjusted the length specification and deleted two commas from the law, but the design did not change.

Saluting the flag

North Carolina has had an official salute to its flag since 2007, when a bill by Senator Katie Dorsett of Guilford County passed both chambers unanimously. The wording had long been used by civic and women’s clubs: “I salute the flag of North Carolina and pledge to the Old North State love, loyalty, and faith.”

Questions about the North Carolina state flag

What do the dates on the North Carolina flag mean?
May 20, 1775, is the traditional date of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, whose authenticity historians dispute. April 12, 1776, is the date of the Halifax Resolves, in which the Provincial Congress authorized North Carolina's delegates to vote for independence.
When was the North Carolina flag adopted?
The current design was adopted in 1885. A 1991 amendment adjusted the wording of the law but did not change the design.
What was North Carolina's flag before 1885?
The 1861 flag had a red union with a white star between scrolls dated May 20, 1775, and May 20, 1861, the date of secession, and a fly of a blue bar over a white bar.
Does North Carolina have a flag salute?
'Yes, adopted in 2007: "I salute the flag of North Carolina and pledge to the Old North State love, loyalty, and faith."'

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