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To the editor:
Correction to Article “The Dates on the State Flag” by Marcia Phillips: With all due respect to the author, the first NC State flag was adopted on June 22, 1861.
The colors were arranged differently: red background on left side with a blue and white horizontal bar (1 each) to its right.
The date of May 20, 1775 was shown for the same reason as it is today; however, the other date shown was that of May 20, 1861 (the date the State seceded from the United States Government).
That flag was replaced in 1885 by the current flag as a condition of restoration of its citizens US Constitutional rights status during the Federal occupation (reconstruction era) of the southern States. The loss of indepence following The War of Northern Aggression (a civil war has the purpose of overthrowing another government which was never a purpose of any southern state that chose to leave the Union) nullified the use of the previously mentioned date of secession from the Union; however, the switching of the colors arrangement was an intentional means of tying the revised state flag’s imagery to that of the US National flag.
Again, with all due respect to the author, whether by innocent act of omission or intentional design, the absence of factual accuracy in the article stating that our first state flag came about it 1885 is unfortunate.
Barry Cartner
Mocksville