Think of the last time you saw the North Carolina state flag. Maybe it was waving in the wind on a flagpole, or maybe you saw it printed on a T-shirt.
Did the flag’s design make you feel proud? Did it make you feel deeply connected to the state?
Two students at N.C. State University claim it probably didn’t — and they’re proposing alternative designs to the current state flag that they say would increase the likelihood of the flag evoking strong feelings among North Carolinians.
Wyat Hamilton and Adam Fleischer, both rising juniors at N.C. State studying civil engineering, say the current flag falls short of effective flag design principles promoted in vexillology, or the study of flags and their design. They say the flag lacks significant symbolism, which leads to some people feeling apathetic about the flag, compared to other representations of North Carolina, such as the state’s outline.
“We’re trying to bring more pride to the people of North Carolina, trying to up their excitement about being here and being a part of our state and our culture,” Fleischer said of the duo’s design efforts, which have included time spent researching the flag’s original design proposal in the state archives.
The pair presented their research and proposed new designs and the reasoning behind their ideas Wednesday in an online event hosted by the state archives.
“We love to share stories from our collections through programs and social media and are excited to highlight this research project,” state archives outreach coordinator Adrienne Berney said in an email to The News & Observer.
Students’ problems with current flag
The state flag’s design is dictated in state law, first enacted in 1885 and slightly revised in 1991.
The flag includes a blue section on the leftmost side, with a white star in the center, surrounded by an “N” on one side and a “C” on the other, both “in gilt,” or gold. The right two-thirds of the flag contains a red bar on top of a white bar, both equal in size. The law also prescribes two dates to be included on the flag, one above the star and one below, which correspond to the signing of Revolutionary-era documents.
Hamilton and Fleischer told The N&O that the flag’s use of text makes the design busy and difficult to read from afar, and instead of offering symbols tied to the state, “it has to literally spell out” what it aims to represent.
“Suffice to say, if you have to remind yourself of what your name is by putting your initials on the state flag, your symbolism has failed,” Hamilton said.
Among others, Hamilton and Fleischer cited state flags in Tennessee, Maryland, California and Texas as examples of flags that make effective use of symbolism to create effective, memorable designs.
“They have good symbolism to rally around and be unified with,” Hamilton said. “And I wanted that for North Carolina.”
The pair’s research included finding a drawing of the original flag design proposed by the state House of Representatives in 1885, which would have included the state seal instead of the “NC” and star design that was eventually selected, but there was less documentation of any discussion by legislators on the design, they said.
Berney said the state archives doesn’t have the records related to the discussion or debate of the flag design, which would have taken place in committee.
“We really don’t have a record of the nitty gritty of working through different opinions in that era,” Berney said.
Process of proposing a new state flag
Using their research about the flag’s history and principles of vexillology, Hamilton and Fleischer have designed several possible alternatives to the current design.
One set of designs is based on the flag that flew at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, a 1781 battle in what is now Greensboro during the Revolutionary War. The other set of designs makes use of one of the state’s most iconic symbols: lighthouses, specifically those at Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout.
The designs do not feature text. Though the accuracy of one of the dates on the state flag has been disputed, Hamilton and Fleischer said that did not impact their preference to remove the dates and other text from their proposed designs, instead citing the simplicity and readability that doing so would offer compared to the current design.
A new flag design would require action by the General Assembly. The students told The N&O they had discussed their idea with some state lawmakers, but acknowledged any changes would likely take several years. They would hope to gather input from around the state through surveys or a commission, they said.
In recent years, Utah and Mississippi have each considered changes to their state flags, in processes that took years. In Mississippi, voters approved a new design by ballot measure in 2020. In Utah, the state’s Department of Cultural & Community Engagement commissioned a survey “to better understand Utahns’ sentiments surrounding the Utah state flag and a potential redesign.”
If the North Carolina legislature decides to look at alternative designs to the state flag, Hamilton said they hoped their designs would be considered, “but ultimately they are just to demonstrate the point of, this is what they could be rather than what it is now.”
“We want to start a conversation about our flag and state pride,” Fleischer said.
Learn more about the event and how to register at archives.ncdcr.gov/news/events/flag-day-time-change-north-carolinas-state-flag.
This story was originally published June 13, 2023 4:26 PM.
