OFFICIAL SEAL: Liberty, clasping a constitution and holding aloft on a pole a liberty cap, stands on the left, while Plenty sits besides a cornucopia on the right; behind them, mountains run to the sea, on which a three-masted ship appears. “May 20, 1775” appears above the figures; the words “The Great Seal of the State of North Carolina” and the state motto surround the whole.

FLAG: Adjacent to the fly of two equally sized bars, red above and white below, is a blue union containing a white star in the center, flanked by the letters N and C in gold. Above and below the star are two gold scrolls, the upper one reading “May 20th 1775,” the lower one “April 12th 1776.”

MOTTO: Esse quam videri (To be rather than to seem).

SONG: “The Old North State.”

FLOWER: Dogwood.

TREE: Long leaf pine.

ANIMAL: Gray squirrel (mammal).

BIRD: Cardinal.

FISH: Channel bass.

INSECT: Honeybee.

REPTILE: Eastern box turtle.

DOG: Plott hound.

GEM: Emerald.

ROCK OR STONE: Granite.

BEVERAGE: Milk.

VEGETABLE: Sweet Potato.

SHELL: Scotch bonnet.

LEGAL HOLIDAYS: New Year’s Day, 1 January; Birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., 3rd Monday in January; Good Friday, Friday before Easter, March or April; Memorial Day, last Monday in May; Independence Day, 4 July; Labor Day, 1st Monday in September; Veterans’ Day, 11 November; Thanksgiving Day, 4th Thursday in November and the day following; Christmas Day, 25 December and the day following.

TIME: 7 AM EST = noon GMT.

1 Location and Size

Located in the southeastern United States, North Carolina ranks 28th in size among the 50 states. The total area of North Carolina is 52,669 square miles (136,413 square kilometers), of which land accounts for 48,843 square miles (126,504 square kilometers) and inland water 3,826 square miles (9,909 square kilometers). North Carolina extends 503 miles (810 kilometers) from east to west and 187 miles (301 kilometers) from north to south. The total boundary line of North Carolina is 1,270 miles (2,044 kilometers), including a general coastline of 301 miles (484 kilometers).

2 Topography

North Carolina’s three major topographic regions include the Atlantic Coastal Plain, the Piedmont Plateau, and the Appalachian Mountains. The Outer Banks, narrow islands of shifting sandbars, screen most of the coastal plain from the ocean. Treacherous navigation conditions and numerous shipwrecks have inspired the name “Graveyard of the Atlantic” for the shoal waters off Cape Hatteras. Near the ocean, the outer coastal plain is very flat and often swampy. This region contains all the natural lakes in North Carolina, the largest being Lake Mattamuskeet (67 square miles/174 square kilometers), followed by lakes Phelps and Waccamaw. The inner coastal plain is more elevated and better drained. Infertile sand hills mark its southwestern section, but the rest of the region constitutes the state’s principal farming country.

The Piedmont is a rolling plateau of red clay soil roughly 150 miles (240 kilometers) wide. The Blue Ridge, a steep escarpment that parallels the Tennessee border, divides the plateau from North Carolina’s westernmost region, containing the highest and most rugged portion of the Appalachian chain. The two major ranges are the Blue Ridge Mountains, which average 3,000–4,000 feet high (900–1,200 meters), and the Great Smoky Mountains, which have 43 peaks

North Carolina Population Profile

Total population estimate in 2006:	8,856,505
Population change, 2000–06:	10.1%
Hispanic or Latino†:	6.3%
Population by race
One race:	98.5%
White:	71.4%
Black or African American:	21.0%
American Indian /Alaska Native:	1.3%
Asian:	1.7%
Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander:	0.0%
Some other race:	3.1%
Two or more races:	1.5%

Population by Age Group

Major Cities by Population
City	Population	% change 2000–05
Notes: †A person of Hispanic or Latino origin may be of any race. NA indicates that data are not available.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey and Population Estimates. www.census.gov/ (accessed March 2007).
Charlotte	610,949	13.0
Raleigh	341,530	23.7
Greensboro	231,962	3.6
Durham	204,845	9.5
Winston-Salem	193,755	4.3
Fayetteville	129,928	7.4
Cary	106,439	12.6
Wilmington	95,476	25.9
High Point	95,086	10.8
Asheville	72,231	4.9

higher than 6,000 feet (1,800 meters). Several smaller chains intersect these two ranges; one of them, the Black Mountains, contains Mount Mitchell, 6,684 feet (2,039 meters), the tallest peak east of the Mississippi River.

No single river basin dominates North Carolina. The Hiwassee, Little Tennessee, French Broad, Watauga, and New rivers flow from the mountains westward to the Mississippi River system. East of the Blue Ridge, the Chowan, Roanoke, Tar, Neuse, Cape Fear, Yadkin, and Catawba drain the piedmont and coastal plain. The largest artificial lakes are Lake Norman on the Catawba, Lake Gaston on the Roanoke, and High Rock Lake on the Yadkin.

3 Climate

North Carolina has a humid, subtropical climate. Winters are short and mild, while summers are usually very sultry. Spring and fall are distinct and refreshing periods of transition. In most of the state, temperatures rarely go above 100°f (38°c) or fall below 10°f (-12°c), but differences in altitude and proximity to the ocean create significant local variations. Average January temperatures range from 36°f (21°c) to 48°f (9°c). Average July temperatures range from 68°f (20°c) to 80°f (27°c). The coldest temperature ever recorded in North Carolina was -34°f (-37°c), registered on 21 January 1985 on Mount Mitchell. The hottest temperature, 110°f (43°c), occurred in Fayetteteville on 21 August 1983.

In the southwestern section of the Blue Ridge, moist southerly winds rising over the mountains drop more than 80 inches (203 centimeters) of precipitation per year. The piedmont region gets between 44 and 48 inches (112 to 122 centimeters) of precipitation per year, while the coastal plain receives about 44 to 56 inches (112 to 142 centimeters) of rain annually. Average winter snowfalls vary from 50 inches (127 centimeters) on Mount Mitchell to only a trace amount at Cape Hatteras. During late summer and early autumn, the eastern region is vulnerable to high winds and flooding from hurricanes.

4 Plants and Animals

North Carolina has approximately 300 species and subspecies of trees and almost 3,000 varieties of flowering plants. Sea oats predominate on the dunes and saltmeadow and cordgrass in the marshes. Blackwater swamps support dense areas of cypress and gum trees. Kudzu—a vine introduced from Japan in the 1930s to combat erosion—is a less attractive feature of the landscape. In the mountains, deciduous forests contain Carolina hemlock, sugar maple, yellow birch, and other species, including the common trees of the piedmont. Spruce and fir dominate the high mountain peaks. In 2006, 27 plant species were listed as threatened or endangered, including Blue Ridge goldenrod, bunched arrowhead, Heller’s blazingstar, Virginia spiraea, seabeach amaranth, and rough-leaved loosestrife.

The white-tailed deer is the principal big game animal of North Carolina, and the black bear is a tourist attraction in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Beavers are the state’s principal furbearers. The largest native carnivore is the bobcat. North Carolina game birds include the mourning dove, wild turkey, and many varieties of duck and goose. Trout and smallmouth bass flourish in North Carolina’s clear mountain streams, while catfish, pickerel, and perch thrive in fresh water elsewhere. The sounds and surf of

North Carolina Population by Race

Census 2000 was the first national census in which the instructions to respondents said, “Mark one or more races.” This table shows the number of people who are of one, two, or three or more races. For those claiming two races, the number of people belonging to the various categories is listed. The U.S. government conducts a census of the population every ten years.

	Number	Percent
Source: U.S. Census Bureau. Census 2000: Redistricting Data. Press release issued by the Redistricting Data Office. Washington, D.C., March, 2001. A dash (—) indicates that the percent is less than 0.1.
Total population	8,049,313	100.0
One race	7,946,053	98.7
Two races	96,203	1.2
White and Black or African American	18,690	0.2
White and American Indian/Alaska Native	19,403	0.2
White and Asian	12,046	0.1
White and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander	1,069	—
White and some other race	22,414	0.3
Black or African American and American Indian/Alaska Native	6,088	0.1
Black or African American and Asian	2,430	—
Black or African American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander	594	—
Black or African American and some other race	5,876	0.1
American Indian/Alaska Native and Asian	773	—
American Indian/Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander	161	—
American Indian/Alaska Native and some other race	1,605	—
Asian and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander	909	—
Asian and some other race	3,676	—
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and some other race	469	—
Three or more races	7,057	0.1

the coast yield channel bass, striped bass, and bluefish to anglers.

The American alligator is protected by the state and has returned in large numbers to eastern swamps and lakeshores. In 2006, the US Fish and Wildlife Service listed 30 animal species as threatened or endangered, including Indiana and Virginia big-eared bats, bald eagle, red-cockaded woodpecker, four species of whale, and five species of sea turtle.

5 Environmental Protection

North Carolina’s citizens and officials worked actively (along with those in Tennessee) to establish the Great Smoky Mountains National Park during the 1920s, the same decade that saw the establishment of the first state agency for wildlife conservation. The Coastal Management Act of 1974 mandated comprehensive land-use planning for estuaries, wetlands, beaches, and adjacent areas of environmental concern.

Air quality in most of North Carolina is good, although the industrialized areas of the piedmont and mountains experience pollution from vehicle exhausts and coal-fired electric generating plants. Water quality ranges from extraordinary purity in numerous mountain trout streams to serious pollution in major rivers and coastal waters. Soil erosion and municipal and industrial waste discharges have drastically increased the level of dissolved solids in some piedmont streams, while runoffs from livestock pastures and nitrates leached from fertilized farmland have overstimulated the growth of algae in slow-moving eastern rivers. Pollution also has made certain areas of the coast unsafe for commercial shellfishing.

About 5.7 million acres (2.3 million hectares) of the state are wetlands. Since 1997 the North Carolina Wetlands Partnership has over-seen wetlands conservation. About 70% of North Carolina’s rare and endangered plants and animals are considered wetland-dependent.

The Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources, the state’s main environmental agency, issues licenses to industries and municipalities and seeks to enforce clean air and water regulations. In 2003, North Carolina had 311 hazardous waste sites listed in the Environmental Protection Agency’s database, 31 of which were on the National Priorities List in 2006.

6 Population

In 2006, North Carolina ranked tenth in population in the United States with an estimated total of 8,856,505 residents. The population is projected to reach 11.4 million by 2025. In 2004, the population density was 175.4 persons per square mile (67.7 persons per square kilometer). Also in 2004, the median age was 36 years. In 2005, about 12% of all residents were 65 years old or older while 25% were 18 or younger.

Most North Carolinians live in and around small and medium-sized cities and towns, many of which are concentrated in the Piedmont Crescent, between Charlotte, Greensboro, and Raleigh. Leading cities in 2005 were Charlotte, 610,949; Raleigh, 341,530; Greensboro, 231,962; Durham, 204,845; and Winston-Salem, 193,755.

7 Ethnic Groups

According to the 2000 census, there were 99,551 Native Americans (including Eskimos and Aleuts) living in North Carolina. The Lumbee of Robeson County and the surrounding area are the major Native American group. Their origins are mysterious, but they are probably descended from many small tribes that banded together in the Lumber River swamps in the 18th century. The Lumbee have no language other than English, have no traditional tribal culture, and are not recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Haliwa, Waccamaw Siouan, Coharie, and Person County Native Americans are smaller groups in eastern North Carolina. The only North Carolina Native Americans with a reservation, a tribal language and culture, and federal recognition are the Cherokee.

In 2000, there were 1,737,545 black Americans in North Carolina (about 21.6% of the total population). There were 113,689 Asians, including 26,197 Asian Indians, 18,984 Chinese, 15,596 Vietnamese, 12,600 Koreans, 9,592 Filipinos, and 7,093 Hmong. Pacific Islanders numbered 3,983. The estimated Hispanic and Latino population was 378,963 (4.7% of the state total). North Carolina’s white population is descended mostly from English settlers and from Scottish, Scotch-Irish, and German immigrants who came to the country during the 18th century.

In 2000, the foreign-born population was about 430,000 people, mostly from Germany, the United Kingdom, and Mexico.

8 Languages

Many regional language features are widespread, but others sharply distinguish the western half of the state from the eastern coastal plain. Terms common to South Midland and Southern speech occur throughout the state, including bucket (pail), spicket (spigot), pullybone (wishbone), ground squirrel (chipmunk), and polecat (skunk). Distinct to the western region are snake feeder (dragonfly), blinds (roller shades), poke (paper bag), and a little piece (a short distance). Along the coast, peanuts are goobers and a screech owl is a shivering owl.

In 2000, 92% of the population five years of age and older spoke only English at home. Other languages spoken at home and the number of speakers included Spanish, 378,942; French, 33,201; and German, 28,520.

9 Religions

The Church of England was the established church of colonial North Carolina. The Moravians, a German sect, founded the town of Salem (later merging with Winston to become Winston-Salem) in 1766. Methodist circuit riders and Separate Baptist missionaries won thousands of converts among blacks and whites, strengthening their appeal in the Great Revival of 1801.

As of 2000, the majority of people were Protestant. The churches of the Southern Baptist Convention reported 1,512,058 adherents in 2000. In 2004, the United Methodist Church claimed 529,272 members, and the Presbyterian Church USA had 203,647 in 2000. The next largest Protestant denominations in 2000 were the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, with 88,830 adherents; the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), 81,037; the Episcopal Church, 80,068; the United Church of Christ, 50,088; and the International Pentecostal Holiness Church, 50,265. In 2004, the state had 319,492 Roman Catholics. In 2000, there were an estimated 25,545 Jews and about 20,137 Muslims. There are still about 18,180 Moravians in the state. Over 4.3 million people (about 54.6% of the population) were not counted as members of any religious organization.

10 Transportation

In 2003, there were 3,344 route miles (5,383 kilometers) of rail track in North Carolina. Two Class I railroads operate in the state, along with 13 local and eight switching and terminal lines. The Carolinian and Piedmont, both state-owned trains, provide daily, roundtrip passenger service between Charlotte and Raleigh. The Carolinian also offers continuing service to the Northeast. Amtrak provides passenger service to most large North Carolina cities.

In 2004, North Carolina had 102,666 miles (165,529 kilometers) of public roads. There were approximately 6,195,000 motor vehicles registered in the same year, including 3,627,000 automobiles, 2,458,000 trucks, and 10,000 buses. Licensed drivers numbered 6,122,137 in 2004. The major interstate highways are I-95 and I-85.

There are nine types of public transportation currently operating in North Carolina: human service transportation, rural general public transportation, urban transit, regional transit, vanpool and carpool programs, intercity buses, intercity rail passenger service, pupil transportation, and passenger ferry service. There are 17

publicly owned urban transit systems operating in the state. More than three million North Carolinians have access to rural public transportation services operating in approximately 45 counties and towns.

The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway follows sounds, rivers, and canals down the entire length of eastern North Carolina. The state ferry system, the second largest in the nation, transports more than 23 million passengers and 820,000 vehicles each year. Twenty-four ferry vessels move passengers and vehicles between the state’s coastal communities. Seventeen of the vessels feature the colors and seals of North Carolina’s public and private colleges and universities to promote the ferry system. There are major ports at Morehead City and Wilmington.

North Carolina had 305 airports in 2005. The state’s two busiest airports are Charlotte-Douglas International and Raleigh-Durham International. Other major airports are at Asheville, Charlotte, Fayetteville, Greensboro, Kinston, Raleigh/Durham, Wilmington, and Winston-Salem.

11 History

When Europeans arrived on the North Carolina coast, Native American tribes inhabiting the region included the Roanoke Hatteras and the Cherokee along the coast and Tuscarora farther inland. There also were Siouan, Iroquoian, and Algonquian groups there. Contact with Europeans brought disease and magnified warfare and enslavement, which had long been practiced among the various tribes. By 1838, the federal government, responding in part to the demands of land-hungry whites, forcibly removed most of the Cherokee to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) along what became known as the Trail of Tears.

European penetration began when Giovanni da Verrazano, a Florentine navigator in French service, discovered the North Carolina coast in 1524. The Spanish entered the region later in the century but made no permanent contribution to the colonization of North Carolina. Sixty years after Verrazano’s voyage, an expedition was sent to gather information about the region. Sir Walter Raleigh later sponsored a colony on Roanoke Island, founded in 1587 under John White as governor. During a trip by White to gather supplies in England (with his return delayed due to the threat posed by the Spanish Armada), all the Roanoke Island settlers had disappeared. The fate of this “Lost Colony” has never been satisfactorily explained.

In 1629, Charles I granted the territory then called Carolana to his attorney general, Sir Robert Heath, who made no attempt to settle it. After Charles II became king in England in 1660, he thanked eight of his supporters through the Carolina Charter of 1663, which made them lords of the new province.

British Rule The lords divided Carolina into three counties and appointed a governor for each one. From the beginning, relations between the settlers and their newly imposed government were stormy. In 1711, Cary’s Rebellion

was touched off by laws passed against the colony’s Quakers. During the confusion, Tuscarora Native Americans launched a war against the settlers but were defeated by 1713.

South Carolina officially split off in 1712 and received a royal governor in 1721. In 1729, North Carolina became a royal colony. In the decades that followed, thousands of new settlers poured in; by 1775 the population had swelled to 345,000, making North Carolina the fourth most populous colony. Western settlers practiced self-sufficient farming, but eastern North Carolinians used slave labor to carve out rice and tobacco plantations. The eastern-dominated colonial assembly often rejected proposals beneficial to western interests while passing laws favorable to their own.

When England tightened its colonial administration, North Carolinians joined their fellow colonists in protests against the Stamp Act and similar measures. In April 1776, the North Carolina provincial congress resolved in favor of American independence, the first colonial representative body to do so. General Charles Cornwallis invaded the state from South Carolina in the fall of 1780. Pursuing the elusive American army under General Nathanael Greene, Cornwallis won a costly victory at Guilford Courthouse in March 1781 but finally succumbed to a trap set at Yorktown, Virginia, by an American army and a French fleet.

Statehood North Carolina waited until November 1789 to ratify the US Constitution. The state did not share in the general prosperity of the early federal period. It had given up its lands beyond the Great Smokies, and thousands of North Carolinians migrated to the new western territories. Poor transportation facilities hampered efforts to expand commercial agriculture, and illiteracy remained widespread.

In 1835, as a result of reforms in the state constitution, the political climate changed. North Carolina initiated a program of state aid to railroads and other public works, and established the first state-supported system of common schools in the South. When South Carolina and six other states seceded and formed the Confederate States of America in 1861, North Carolina refused to join, trying instead to work for a peaceful settlement of the issues. After the outbreak of hostilities at Fort Sumter in South Carolina, however, public opinion swung to the Confederate side. North Carolina became the last state to withdraw from the Union, joining the Confederacy on 20 May 1861.

North Carolina provided more troops to the Confederacy than any other state, and its losses added up to more than one-fourth of the total for the entire South, but support for the war was mixed. North Carolina became a haven for deserters from the front lines in Virginia. At the war’s end, General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered the last major Confederate army to General William T. Sherman at Bennett House (on the western edge of Durham) on 26 April 1865.

After the Civil War Reconstruction marked a bitter political and social struggle in North Carolina. United in the Conservative Party, most of the prewar slaveholding elite fought to preserve as much as possible of the former system, but a Republican coalition of blacks and nonslaveholding white Unionists instituted democratic reforms. Election of a Conservative governor in 1876 and the removal of federal troops in 1877 signaled the end of the Reconstruction era.

Once in power, the Conservatives—or Democrats, as they renamed themselves—enacted legislation to guarantee the power of landlords over tenants and sharecroppers. They cooperated with the consolidation of railroads under Northern ownership, and supported a massive drive to build cotton mills on the swiftly flowing streams of the piedmont. By 1880, industry had surpassed its prewar level.

As the Industrial Revolution gained ground in North Carolina, small farmers protested their steadily worsening condition. The Populist Party expressed their demands for reform, and for a brief period in the 1890s shared power with the Republican Party in the Fusion movement. In 1900, voters elected conservative Democrat Charles Brantley Aycock governor and approved a constitutional amendment that barred all illiterates from voting, except for those whose ancestors had voted before 1867.

In the decades after Aycock’s election, an alliance of business interests and moderate-to-conservative Democrats dominated North Carolina politics. The industrial trio of textile, tobacco, and furniture manufacturers, joined by banks and insurance companies, controlled the state’s economy. The Republican Party shriveled to small pockets of minor activity scattered around the state as blacks were forced out of the electorate. Political leaders emphasized fiscal responsibility, honest government, state assistance to aid economic growth, a tolerable level of social services, and a relative absence of racist extremism.

After World War II In the years since World War II, North Carolina has taken its place in the booming Sunbelt economy. The development of Research Triangle Park—equidistant from the educational facilities of Duke University (Durham), North Carolina State University (Raleigh), and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill—has provided a home for dozens of scientific laboratories for government and business. Between 1987 and 1990, more manufacturing plants came to North Carolina than to any other state, and an increase in the state’s per capita (per person) income moved it from 44th to 34th nationally.

Identification of the Democratic Party in the early 1970s with liberal causes and with opposition to the Vietnam War helped the conservative wing of the Republican Party gain popularity. In 1972, North Carolina elected its first Republican US senator (Jesse A. Helms) and governor (James E. Holshouser, Jr.) since Fusion days, and Republican strength has continued to build.

In 1990, Harvey Gantt, the liberal black mayor of Charlotte, challenged Helms in his bid for reelection to a fourth term. Helms, a conservative member of the Senate, accused Gantt of supporting quotas which would give preference to minorities over more-qualified whites. Helms won by a margin of 8% of the vote.

The eastern shores of North Carolina were hit by a succession of hurricanes in September 1999. Weeks of rainfall that followed storms made for the worst flooding in the state’s history. In January 2000, the same region was blanketed in record snowfalls. By July 2000, the federal government had approved more than $1 billion in aid to the state, but the conditions had permanently destroyed the livelihoods of thousands of farmers.

The health hazards of smoking, state and federal excise taxes, and ongoing lawsuits combined to cut cigarette production. This hurt both the tobacco farmers and the cigarette manufacturers in the state. The funds from the national tobacco settlement were used to support educational and job training programs and provide help for farmers.

In the 2000s, the state focused on such issues as job creation, by bringing more high-skilled and high-tech jobs to the state; providing a quality transportation system for all of North Carolina; enacting strong Patients Bill of Rights legislation; helping seniors cope with the high costs of prescription drugs; promoting land and

water conservation; and providing a strong environmental enforcement program.

12 State Government

Under the 1971 constitution, the North Carolina General Assembly consists of a 50-member senate and a 120-member house of representatives. All members of the North Carolina General Assembly serve two-year terms. North Carolina’s chief executive has powers of appointment, supervision, veto, and budgetary recommendation. The governor and lieutenant governor run separately. The voters also elect a secretary of state, treasurer, auditor, and other executives to four-year terms.

Bills become law when they have passed three readings in each house of the North Carolina General Assembly, and take effect 60 days after adjournment. A three-fifths vote of the members of both legislative chambers is needed to override the governor’s veto. Constitutional amendments may be proposed by a convention called by a two-thirds vote of both houses and a majority of the voters, or may be submitted directly to the voters by a three-fifths consent of each house. In either case, the proposed amendments must be ratified by a popular majority before becoming part of the constitution.

The legislative salary as of December 2004 was $13,951 and the governor’s salary was $121,391.

13 Political Parties

The Conservative Party, representing a coalition of pre-Civil War Democrats and former Whigs, became the Democratic Party after winning the

North Carolina Governors: 1776–2007

1776	Samuel Ashe
1776	Willie Jones
1776–1780	Richard Caswell
1780–1781	Abner Nash
1781–1782	Thomas Burke
1782–1785	Alexander Martin
1785–1787	Richard Caswell
1787–1789	Samuel Johnston	Federalist
1789–1792	Alexander Martin	Federalist
1792–1795	Richard Dobbs Spaight, Sr.	Anti–Federalist
1795–1798	Samuel Ashe	Anti–Federalist
1798–1799	William Richardson Davie	Federalist
1799–1802	Benjamin Williams	Dem-Rep
1802–1805	James Turner	Republican
1805–1807	Nathaniel Alexander	Dem-Rep
1807–1808	Benjamin Williams	Dem-Rep
1808–1810	David Stone	Dem-Rep
1810–1811	Benjamin Smith	Dem-Rep
1811–1814	William Hawkins Republican	Democrats
1814–1817	William Miller	Dem-Rep
1817–1820	John Branch	Dem-Rep
1820–1821	Jesse Franklin	Dem-Rep
1821–1824	Gabriel Holmes	Dem-Rep
1824–1827	Hutchins Gordon Burton	Federalist
1827–1828	James Iredell	Dem-Rep
1828–1830	John Owen	Dem-Rep
1830–1832	Montford Stokes	Democrat
1832–1835	David Lowry Swain	Whig
1835–1836	Richard Dobbs Spaight, Jr.	Democrat
1836–1841	Edward Bishop Dudley	Whig
1841–1845	John Motley Morehead	Whig
1845–1849	William Alexander Graham	Whig
1849–1851	Charles Manly	Whig
1851–1854	David Settle Reid	Democrat
1854–1855	Warren Winslow	Democrat
1855–1859	Thomas Bragg	Democrat
1859–1861	John Willis Ellis	Democrat
1861–1862	Henry Toole Clark	Democrat
1862–1865	Zebulon Baird Vance	Democrat
1865	William Woods Holden	Republican
1865–1868	Jonathan Worth	Democrat
1868–1870	William Woods Holden	Republican
1870–1874	Tod Robinson Caldwell	Republican
1874–1877	Curtis Hooks Brogden	Republican
1877–1879	Zebulon Baird Vance	Democrat
1879–1885	Thomas Jordan Jarvis	Democrat
1885–1889	Alfred Moore Scales	Democrat
1889–1891	Daniel Gould Fowle	Democrat
1891–1893	Thomas Michael Holt	Democrat
1893–1897	Elias Carr	Democrat
1897–1901	Daniel Lindsay Russell	Greenbacker
1901–1905	Charles Brantley Aycock	Democrat
1905–1909	Robert Brodnax Glenn	Democrat
1909–1913	William Walton Kitchin	Democrat
1913–1917	Locke Craig	Democrat
1917–1921	Thomas Walter Bickett	Democrat
1921–1925	Cameron A. Morrison	Democrat
1925–1929	Angus Wilton McLean	Democrat
1929–1933	Oliver Max Gardner	Democrat
1933–1937	John Christoph Ehringhaus	Democrat
1937–1941	Clyde Roark Hoey	Democrat
1941–1945	Joseph Melville Boughton	Democrat
1945–1949	Robert Gregg Cherry	Democrat
1949–1953	William Kerr Scott	Democrat
1953–1954	William Bradley Umstead	Democrat
1954–1961	Luther Hartwell Hodges	Democrat
1961–1965	Terry Sanford	Democrat
1965–1969	Dan Killian Moore	Democrat
1969–1973	Robert Walter Scott	Democrat
1973–1977	James Eubert Holshouser, Jr.	Republican
1977–1985	James Baxter Hunt, Jr.	Democrat
1985–1993	James Grubbs Martin	Republican
1993–2001	James Baxter Hunt, Jr.	Democrat
2001–	Michael F. Easley	Democrat
Democratic Republican – Dem-Rep

governorship in 1876; from that time and for most of the 20th century, North Carolina was practically a one-party state.

Republican presidential candidates picked up strength in the 1950s and 1960s and have carried the state since Richard Nixon’s election in 1968, except for 1976, when Jimmy Carter claimed it. In 2000, Republican George W. Bush won 56% of the vote in the presidential election, and Democrat Al Gore won 43%. In 2004, Bush again won 56% of the popular vote in North Carolina, to Democrat John Kerry’s 44%. In 1996, Jesse Helms was reelected to the Senate, defeating black mayor Harvey Gantt in a rematch of their bitterly contested race of 1992. Helms subsequently announced he would not run for reelection in 2002, and Republican Elizabeth H. Dole won his Senate seat. Democrat

North Carolina Presidential Vote by Political Parties, 1948–2004

YEAR	NORTH CAROLINA WINNER	DEMOCRAT	REPUBLICAN	STATES’ RIGHTS DEMOCRAT	PROGRESSIVE
*Won US presidential election.
** Independent candidate Ross Perot received 91,895 votes in 1992 and 32,257 votes in 1996.
1948	*Truman (D)	459,070	258,572	69,652	3,915
1952	Stevenson (D)	652,803	558,107	—	—
1956	Stevenson (D)	590,530	575,069	—	—
1960	*Kennedy (D)	713,136	655,420	—	—
1964	*Johnson (D)	800,139	624,841	—	—
					AMERICAN IND.
1968	*Nixon (R)	464,113	627,192	—	496,188
					AMERICAN
1972	*Nixon (R)	438,705	1,054,889	—	25,018
				LIBERTARIAN
1976	Carter (D)	927,365	741,960	2,219	5,607
1980	*Reagan (R)	875,635	915,018	9,677	—
1984	*Reagan (R)	824,287	1,346,481	3,794	—
					NEW ALLIANCE
1988	*Bush (R)	890,167	1,237,258	1,263	5,682
					IND. (PEROT)
1992	Bush (R)	1,114,042	1,134,661	5,171	357,864
1996	Dole (R)	1,107,849	1,225,938	8,740	168,059
				LIBERTARIAN
2000	*Bush, G. W. (R)	1,257,692	1,631,163	13,891	—
2004	*Bush, G. W. (R)	1,525,849	1,961,166	11,731	—

John Edwards, a trial lawyer, defeated one-term Republican Lauch Faircloth in the 1998 Senate race. Edwards was John Kerry’s running mate as vice president in 2004. The Senate seat Edwards vacated was won by Republican Richard Burr in 2004.

Democrat Mike Easley won the governorship in 2000; he was reelected in 2004. As of 15 November 2006, seven Democrats and six Republicans had been elected to the US House of Representatives. Following the 2006 election, the state assembly had 68 Democrats and 52 Republicans, and there were 19 Republicans and 31 Democrats in the state senate. Thirty-nine women were elected to the state legislature in 2006, or 22.9%. In 2004, there were approximately 5,537,000 registered voters. In 1998, 53% of registered voters were Democratic, 34% Republican, and 14% unaffiliated or members of other parties.

14 Local Government

As of 2005, North Carolina had 100 counties, 541 municipalities, 319 special districts, and 120 public school systems. Counties are the primary governmental units for most citizens. All counties are led by boards of commissioners; more than half the counties employ a county manager. Counties are subdivided into townships, but these do not exercise any independent government functions.

County and municipal governments share many functions, but the precise distribution of authority varies in each case. Most cities use the council-manager form of government, with council members elected from the city at large.

15 Judicial System

North Carolina’s general court of justice is a unified judicial system that includes appeals courts (supreme court and court of appeals) and trial courts (superior court and district courts). The state’s highest court, the supreme court, consists of a chief justice and six associate justices. It hears cases from the court of appeals as well as certain cases from lower courts.

The court of appeals is comprised of 12 judges. Superior courts, in 44 districts, have original jurisdiction in most major civil and criminal cases. District courts try misdemeanors, civil cases involving less than $5,000, and all domestic cases. In 2004 North Carolina’s violent crime rate (murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault) per 100,000 persons was 447.8. Crimes against property (burglary, larceny/ theft, and motor vehicle theft) that year totaled 4,160.2 reported incidents per 100,000 population. North Carolina had 35,434 prisoners in state and federal institutions as of 31 December 2004. North Carolina punishes crime severely. From 1976 through 5 May 2006, the state carried out 42 executions. As of 1 January 2006, there were 190 persons under sentence of death.

16 Migration

For most of the state’s history, more people have moved away every decade than have moved into the state. Before 1890, the emigration rate was higher among whites than among blacks; since then, the reverse has been true. Between 1940 and 1970, more blacks left North Carolina than moved into the state, mostly seeking homes in the North and West. After 1970, however, black out-migration abruptly slackened as economic conditions in eastern North Carolina improved.

Between 1990 and 1998, the state had net gains of 501,000 in domestic migration and 49,000 in international migration. In the period 2000–05, net international migration was 158,224 and net internal migration was 232,448, for a net gain of 390,672 people.

17 Economy

North Carolina’s economy was dominated by agriculture until the closing decades of the 19th century, with tobacco the major cash crop; today, tobacco is still the central factor in the economy of the coastal plain. The biggest employers in the state are the textile and furniture industries.

Since the 1950s, state government has made a vigorous effort to recruit outside investment and to improve the state’s industrial mix. The greatest industrial growth, however, has come not from wholly new industries but from fields related to industries that were firmly established. Apparel manufacture spread across eastern North Carolina during the 1960s as an extension of the textile industry, and other new firms produce chemicals and machinery for the textile and furniture business.

The rise in the unemployment rate in North Carolina was higher than that of the nation as a whole during the recession of 2001 and its aftereffects, due in large measure to layoffs in manufacturing.

In 2004, North Carolina’s gross state product (GSP) was $336.4 billion, of which manufacturing accounted for $72.3 billion, or 21.4% of GSP. Manufacturing was followed by the real estate sector, at $32.8 billion (9.7% of GSP), and healthcare and social assistance services, at $19.8 billion (5.9% of GSP).

18 Income

In 2005, North Carolina ranked 38th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia with a per capita (per person) income of $29,322 (the national average was $33,050). That year, the gross state product (GSP) was $345 billion, 12th highest nationwide. The average median household income for 2002–04 was $39,000 compared to the national average of $44,473. During the same period, an estimated 14.8% of the state’s residents lived below the federal poverty level, compared to 12.4% nationwide.

19 Industry

North Carolina has had a predominantly industrial economy for most of the 20th century. The state remains a major manufacturer of textiles, cigarettes, and furniture. The textile industry is the largest manufacturing, followed by tobacco manufacturers, chemicals and allied products, industrial machinery, food products, electronic and electrical equipment, furniture and fixtures, and rubber and plastics products.

The total value of shipments by manufacturers exceeded $163.8 billion in 2004. Gaston County near Charlotte has the largest concentration of textile factories in the United States. Textile companies headquartered in the state include Burlington Industries (once the world’s largest textile company before suffering through bankruptcy) and Cone Mills Corporation. Cone Mills and Burlington Industries later combined to form ITG (International Textile Group), headquartered in Greensboro.

20 Labor

In April 2006, the labor force in North Carolina numbered 4,396,000, with approximately 189,800 workers unemployed, yielding an unemployment rate of 4.3%, compared to the national average of 4.7% for the same period. As of April 2006, about 6% of the labor force was employed in construction; 14.1% in manufacturing; 18.4% in trade, transportation, and public utilities; 5.1% in financial activities; 11.3% in professional and business services; 11.9% in education and health services; 9.1% in leisure and hospitality services; and 17% in government.

In 2005, 107,000 of North Carolina’s 3,631,000 employed wage and salary workers were members of unions, representing 2.9% of those so employed. This was the second-lowest percentage in the nation in 2005. The national average was 12%.

21 Agriculture

Farm marketings in North Carolina totaled some $7.7 billion in 2005, eighth among the 50 states. North Carolina led the nation in the production of tobacco and sweet potatoes, ranked fifth in peanuts, and was also a leading producer of corn, grapes, pecans, apples, tomatoes, and soybeans.

There were 52,000 farms in 2004. The relatively large number of family farm owner-operators who depend on a modest tobacco allotment to make their small acreages profitable is the basis for the state’s opposition to the US government’s antismoking campaign and its fight to preserve tobacco price supports. In 2004, tobacco production was 351.6 million pounds (159.5 million kilograms), 40% of total US production.

North Carolina’s most heavily agricultural counties are massed in the coastal plain, the center of tobacco, corn, and soybean production, along with a bank of northern piedmont counties on the Virginia border. Virtually all peanut production is in the eastern part of the state, while tobacco, corn, and soybean production spills over into the piedmont. Cotton is grown in scattered counties along the South Carolina border and in a band leading northward across the coastal plain. Beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, and blueberries are commercial crops in selected mountain and coastal plain locations. Apples are important to the economy of the mountains, and the sand hills are a center of peach cultivation.

22 Domesticated Animals

North Carolina farms and ranches had an estimated 870,000 cattle and calves in 2005, valued at $661.2 million. In 2004, the state had around 9.8 million hogs and pigs, valued at $823.2 million. During 2003, North Carolina led the nation in turkey production with 1.1 billion pounds (0.5 billion kilograms), worth $397.8 million; the state was fourth in broiler production with 4.3 billion pounds (2 billion kilograms), worth $1.51 billion; egg production totaled 2.52 billion eggs, worth $241.8 million. Milk cows numbered 61,000 in 2003, and they produced 1.04 million pounds (0.48 million kilograms) of milk.

23 Fishing

In 2004, the commercial catch in North Carolina totaled over 136.4 million pounds (62 million kilograms) valued at $77.1 million. Flounder, menhaden, and sea trout are the most valuable finfish. Shrimp, crabs, and clams are the most sought-after shellfish. In 2004, the state catch for hard blue crab accounted for 20% of the total national supply, the second-highest percentage in the nation (after Louisiana). The port at Beaufort-Morehead City ranked 19th in the nation for volume, with a catch of 65.3 million pounds (28.9 million kilograms).

In 2003, there were 31 processing and 78 wholesale plants in the state with about 1,471 employees. In 2001, the commercial fleet had 773 vessels. North Carolina lakes and streams are stocked in part by three state fish hatcheries and two national hatcheries within the state (Edenton and KcKinney Lake). In 2004, the state issued 692,497 sport fishing licenses.

24 Forestry

As of 2004, forests covered 18,269,000 acres (6,179,000 hectares) in North Carolina, or about 59% of the state’s land area. North Carolina’s forests constitute 2.5% of all US forestland and 97% of the state’s wooded areas have commercial value. The largest tracts are found along the coast and in the Western Mountains. Hardwoods make up 53% of the state’s forests. Mixed stands of oak and pine account for an additional 14%. The remaining 33% is pine and other conifers. More than 90% of the acreage harvested for timber is reforested.

National forests cover 6% of North Carolina’s timberlands and state and local governments own another 2%. The remainder is privately owned. In the days of wooden sailing vessels, North Carolina pine trees supplied large quantities of “naval stores”—tar, pitch, and turpentine for waterproofing and other nautical purposes. Today, the state produces mainly saw logs, pulpwood, veneer logs, and Christmas trees. In 2004, lumber production totaled 2.62 billion board feet, eighth in the United States.

25 Mining

The estimated 2004 value of minerals produced in North Carolina was $805 million. The state’s leading mineral commodities were crushed stone and phosphate rock. According to preliminary figures, crushed stone was valued at $548 million. Production was estimated at 72.3 million metric tons. Phosphate rock, in Beaufort County, and lithium minerals, mined in the Kings Mountain area of Gaston and Cleveland counties, are other valuable mineral commodities mined. North Carolina ranked first in the production of common clay, feldspar, crude mica, olivine, and pyrophyllite, of which the state was the sole producer; third in phosphate rock; seventh in industrial sand and gravel; and eighth in crushed stone. Two categories of clay, common clay and a shale and kaolin mix, were produced. Dimension stone production was 43,000 metric tons, valued at $18.2 million in 2004.

26 Energy and Power

Except for a modest volume of hydroelectric power, the energy consumed in North Carolina comes from outside sources. Installed electrical capacity (utility and nonutility) totaled 27.3 million kilowatts in 2003 and production reached 127.6 billion kilowatt hours. The Brunswick station in Brunswick County, the McGuire plant near Charlotte, and the Shearon-Harris plant near Raleigh were the only nuclear power units in operation in 2006. In 2000 North Carolina’s total per capita energy consumption was 311 million Btu (78.4 million kilocalories), ranking it 37th among the 50 states.

No petroleum or natural gas has been found in North Carolina, but major companies have expressed interest in offshore drilling. There is no coal mining and proved coal reserves are minor, at only 10.7 million tons.

27 Commerce

North Carolina had wholesale sales in 2002 of over $104.3 billion; retail sales were $88.8 billion. The state exported over $19.4 billion worth of goods to foreign markets in 2005 (14th in the United States). The ports of Wilmington and Morehead City handle much of the international trade.

28 Public Finance

The North Carolina budget is prepared biennially by the governor and reviewed annually by the Office of State Budget and Management, in consultation with the Advisory Budget Commission. It is then submitted to the North Carolina General Assembly for amendment and approval. The fiscal year runs from 1 July to 30 June.

Revenues for 2004 were $44.373 billion and expenditures were $37.05 billion. The largest general expenditures were for education ($13.29 billion), public welfare ($8.75 billion), and highways ($3.19 billion). North Carolina’s total state

debt was $14.1 billion, or $1,651.39 per capita (per person).

29 Taxation

In 2006, personal income tax rates in North Carolina ranged from 6% to 8.25%. The corporate income tax is a flat rate of 6.9%. The state sales and use tax was 4.5%. Local governments also impose sales taxes, ranging from 2% to 3%. Food, prescription drugs, and certain other articles are exempt from the state sales tax or have lowered rates, but food may be subject to local sales taxes. The state also imposes a wide array of excise taxes covering motor fuels, tobacco products, insurance premiums, public utilities, alcoholic beverages, amusements, and other selected items. Other state taxes include an oil and gas production tax, a forest product assessment tax, various license fees, and stamp taxes.

The state collected $18.64 billion in taxes in 2005, of which 45.2% came from individual income taxes, 16.2% from selective sales taxes, 24.7% from the general sales tax, 6.8% from corporate income taxes, and 7.1% from other taxes. In 2005, North Carolina ranked 25th among the states in terms of combined state and local tax burden, which amounted to about $2,147 per capita (the national average was $2,192).

30 Health

In October 2005, the infant mortality rate stood at 8.4 per 1,000 live births. The death rate for HIV-related infections was 5.8 per 100,000 population. The 2003 overall death rate was 8.7 per 1,000 inhabitants. Among North Carolina residents age 18 and older, 23.1% were smokers.

A particularly serious public health problem in North Carolina is byssinosis, or brown lung disease. Caused by prolonged inhalation of cotton dust, byssinosis cripples the lungs of longtime textile workers, producing serious disabilities and even death.

North Carolina’s 113 community hospitals had about 23,300 beds in 2003. The average expense for community hospital care was $1,020 per inpatient day in 2003. In 2004, at least 17% of North Carolina’s residents were uninsured. In 2004, North Carolina had 252 doctors per 100,000 residents, and 831 nurses per 100,000 residents in 2005. In 2004, there were 3,903 dentists in the state.

The state acted to increase the supply of doctors in eastern North Carolina in the 1970s by the establishment of a new medical school at East Carolina University in Greenville. Medical schools and superior medical research facilities are also located at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, UNC Hospitals at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and the Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem.

31 Housing

In 2004, there were an estimated 3,860,078 units of housing in North Carolina, of which 3,340,330 were occupied; 69% were owner-occupied. About 64.7% of all housing units were single-family, detached homes; 16.8% were mobile homes. Nearly 36% of the entire housing stock was built between 1970 and 1989. The most common energy source for heating was electricity. It was estimated that 183,095 units lacked telephone service, 11,661 lacked complete plumbing facilities, and 11,745 lacked complete kitchen facilities. The average household size was 2.48 people.

Also in 2004, 93,100 new privately owned units were authorized for construction. The median home value was $117,771. The median monthly cost for mortgage owners was $1,028, while renters paid a median of $610 per month.

32 Education

North Carolina established the first state university in the United States in 1795 and the first free system of common schools in the South in 1839. In 1957, Charlotte, Greensboro, and Winston-Salem were the first cities in the South to admit black students voluntarily to formerly all-white schools. North Carolina established a statewide testing program in 1977 and increased high school graduation requirements in 1983, becoming the first state to require students to pass Algebra I in order to earn a diploma. In 2004, 80.9% of North Carolinians age 25 and older were high school graduates and 23.4% had obtained a bachelor’s degree or higher. The national averages were 84% and 26%, respectively.

North Carolina has been active in providing special programs for gifted students. Governor’s School, a summer residential program for the gifted, was founded in 1963. Other talented students are served by the highly regarded North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, which began operating in 1965, and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, located in Durham, which opened in 1980.

Total public school enrollment was estimated at 1,336,000 in fall 2002 and is expected to reach 1,381,000 by fall 2014. Expenditures for public education in 2003/04 were estimated at $10.2 billion. Enrollment in nonpublic schools in fall 2003 was 102,642.

As of fall 2002, there were 447,335 students enrolled in college or graduate school. In 2005, North Carolina had 130 degree-granting institutions. The University of North Carolina (UNC) was chartered in 1789 and opened at Chapel Hill in 1795. The state university system is now comprised of 16 campuses. The three oldest and largest campuses, all of which offer research and graduate as well as undergraduate programs, are UNC-Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University in Raleigh, and UNC-Greensboro. North Carolina had 58 community colleges and 1 specialized technology center as of 2005.

Duke University in Durham is North Carolina’s premier private institution and takes its place with the Chapel Hill and Raleigh public campuses as the third key facility in the Research Triangle. In addition to the public institutions and community colleges, there are also 49 private four-year schools, of which Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem and Davidson College in Davidson are most noteworthy.

33 Arts

North Carolina has been a pioneer in exploring new channels for state support of the arts. It was the first state to fund its own symphony, to endow its own art museum, to found a state school of the arts, to create a statewide arts council, and to establish a cabinet-level Department of Cultural Resources. Its state arts council, created in 1964, reaches the pubic through a network of over 100 community arts councils and over 600 arts organizations each year.

The North Carolina Symphony, based in Raleigh, gives free concerts to more than 100,000 public schoolchildren and performs some 175 concerts annually. The North Carolina Museum of Art features one of the finest collections of early European master paintings in the country. In 2005, the museum received a gift of 23 works by French sculptor Auguste Rodin, including 22 bronze sculptures. The gift made the museum one of the top Rodin repositories worldwide. At least 200 arts-related festivals are held in North Carolina each year. Summer dance and music festivals, as well as professional theaters and historical outdoor dramas, galleries and museums, and the crafts community all serve as anchors for the state’s tourism industry. North Carolina’s Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Paul Green created the genre of historical drama with the 1937 production of The Lost Colony.

The American Dance Festival in Durham has commissioned new dance works, preserved dance history, trained dancers, and presented the best in contemporary dance. The African American Dance Ensemble, based in North Carolina, performs for people across the United States promoting the preservation of African and African American dance. Flat Rock Playhouse is the state theater of North Carolina.

Folk and traditional arts thrive across North Carolina in all disciplines. The North Carolina Folk Heritage Awards are given to recognize the state’s leading folk artists. Penland School of Crafts, the John C. Campbell Folk School, the Southern Highland Guild, and the North Carolina Pottery Center are but a few of the organizations in North Carolina that help keep the crafts tradition alive.

The North Carolina Humanities Council is active in a number of programs. For 30 years, the

North Carolina Arts Council has supported artists in the schools to teach, perform, and encourage creative expression. The Arts Council’s Grassroots Arts Program, established in 1977, was the nation’s first per capita funding program for the local arts initiatives in which decision-making remained at the local level.

34 Libraries and Museums

In North Carolina, all public libraries are linked together through the State Library, ensuring that users in all parts of the state can have access to printed, filmed, and recorded materials. In 2001, there were 76 public library systems, with 379 libraries, of which 314 were branches. The state’s public library systems had a total of 15.9 million volumes and a circulation of 43.3 million. Major university research libraries are located at the Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and Greensboro campuses of the University of North Carolina and at Duke University in Durham.

North Carolina had 188 museums and historical sites in 2000. The North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh is one of only two state-supported art museums in the United States (the other is in Virginia). The Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh is maintained by the state Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources; smaller science museums exist in Charlotte, Greensboro, and Durham.

35 Communications

In 2004, 93.3% of the state’s occupied housing units had telephones. In addition, by June of that year, there were 4,875,916 mobile telephone subscribers. In 2003, 57.7% of North Carolina households had a computer and 51.1% had Internet access. There were 50 major AM radio stations in North Carolina in 2005, as well as 106 major FM stations. Major television stations numbered 33. The Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville-Anderson area had 732,490 television households, 61% of which received cable in 1999. The Raleigh-Durham area had 858,490 television-viewing households, 62% of which had cable. Finally, the Greensboro–High Point–Winston-Salem viewing area boasted 64% of all television households with cable. A total of 120,858 Internet domain names were registered in the state in the year 2000.

36 Press

As of 2005, North Carolina had 34 morning newspapers, 13 evening dailies, and 39 Sunday papers. Daily circulation of the largest newspapers as of 2005 was the Charlotte Observer (226,082) the Raleigh News & Observer (176,550), and the Greensboro News and Record (90,436). The Raleigh News & Observer won a 1996 Pulitzer Prize for its series on the hog industry in the state.

North Carolina has been the home of several nationally recognized “little reviews” of literature, poetry, and criticism, including Southern Poetry Review.

37 Tourism, Travel & Recreation

In 2002, there were about 44.4 million visitors to North Carolina, with total travel expenditures reaching about $11.9 billion. About 30% of all trips are made by residents traveling within the state.

Raleigh and Charlotte are right in the heart of NASCAR racing. Tourists are also attracted by North Carolina’s coastal beaches, by golf and tennis opportunities (including the world-famous golf courses at Pinehurst), and parks and scenery in the North Carolina mountains. Sites of special interest are the Revolutionary War battlegrounds at Guilford Courthouse and Moore’s Creek Bridge; Bennett Place, in western Durham, where the last major Confederate army surrendered; Fort Raleigh, the site of the Lost Colony; and the Wright Brothers National Memorial at Kitty Hawk.

Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout national seashores, which protect the beauty of the Outer Banks, together cover 58,563 acres (23,700 hectares). The Blue Ridge Parkway, a scenic motor route that winds over the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia, attracts millions of visitors to North Carolina yearly. Another popular attraction is the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, straddling the North Carolina–Tennessee border. There are more than 1.2 million acres of national forest land located in North Carolina, 1,500 lakes of ten acres or more, and 37,000 miles of freshwater streams.

38 Sports

There are four major league professional sports teams in North Carolina: the Charlotte Bobcats of the National Basketball Association, the Charlotte Sting of the Women’s National Basketball Association, the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League, and the Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League, who relocated to Raleigh from Hartford, Connecticut, in 1997. The Charlotte Hornets, now located in New Orleans, left North Carolina in 2002. Minor league baseball’s Carolina League is based in North Carolina and 14 minor league teams call the state home. Additionally, there is minor league hockey in Charlotte, Fayetteville, and Winston-Salem.

Two other professional sports that figure prominently in the state are golf and stock car racing. The Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic in April is a major tournament on the Professional Golfers Association tour. The Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte is the home of the Nextel All-Star Challenge, the Coca-Cola 600, and the Bank of America 500 on the NASCAR Nextel Cup circuit.

College basketball is very popular. Organized in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, Wake Forest University, and Duke University consistently field nationally ranked basketball teams.

Other annual sporting events include the Stoneybrook Steeplechase in Southern Pines in April and the National Hollerin’ Contest in Spivey’s Corner, which tests farmers’ ability to call livestock.

39 Famous North Carolinians

Three US presidents had North Carolina roots, but all three reached the White House from Tennessee. Andrew Jackson (1767–1845), the seventh president, studied law and was admitted to the bar in North Carolina before moving to frontier Tennessee in 1788. James K. Polk (1795–1849), the 11th president, was born in Mecklenburg County. Another native North Carolinian, Andrew Johnson (1808–1875), was a tailor’s apprentice in Raleigh before moving to Tennessee at the age of 18. Johnson served as Abraham Lincoln’s vice president for six weeks in 1865 before becoming the nation’s 17th president when Lincoln was assassinated.

The infamous Edward Teach (or Thatch, b.England, c.1680–1718) made his headquarters at Bath and terrorized coastal waters as the pirate known as Blackbeard.

Among major politicians of the 20th century are Samuel J. Ervin, Jr. (1896–1985), US senator from 1954 to 1974 and chairman of the Senate Watergate investigation, and Jesse Helms (b.1921), senator from 1973–2003. Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson (b.1941) began his career as a student activist in Greensboro. Among the most famous native North Carolinians is evangelist Billy Graham (b.1918).

The Wright brothers, Wilbur (b.Indiana, 1867–1912) and Orville (b.Ohio, 1871–1948), achieved the first successful powered airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, on the Outer Banks, on 17 December 1903. Kary B. Mullis (b.1944) won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1993.

A number of North Carolinians have won fame as literary figures. They include William Sydney Porter (1862–1910), a short story writer who used the pseudonym O. Henry; and novelists Thomas Wolfe (1900–1938) and Reynolds Price (b.1933). Journalists Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965), Tom Wicker (b.1926), and Charles Kuralt (1934–1997) were all North Carolina natives.

Jazz artists Thelonious Monk (1918–1982), John Coltrane (1926–1967), and Nina Simone (1933–2003) were born in the state, as were country singer Randy Travis (b.1963), folk-singer Arthel “Doc” Watson (b.1923), bluegrass banjo artist Earl Scruggs (b.1924), and actor Andy Griffith (b.1926). North Carolina athletes include Michael Jordan (b.New York, 1963) who grew up in Wilmington and played college basketball at the University of North Carolina; he went on to international fame as a NBA star with the Chicago Bulls. NASCAR driver Richard Petty (1937–2000) and former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson (1935–2006) were also from the state.