When images of North Carolina’s booth at the Great American State Fair first surfaced last week, a Confederate battle flag displayed on multiple monitors became the latest controversy to hit the Washington, D.C., exhibit — raising questions about where the image came from and whether it bears any historical merit.

In fact, North Carolina has only flown one other official state flag in its history, and the one displayed in the booth isn’t it.

Because North Carolina officially bowed out of the Trump-backed State Fair celebrating America’s 250th birthday, private organizers and businesses stepped up to sponsor and design the state’s booth. Those included race car company Richard Childress Racing, vehicle manufacturer Spevco and Mt. Olive Pickles.

A video of the booth from June 26 posted by Spectrum News’ Reuben Jones shocked some viewers. Monitors in the booth showed a flag with part of the North Carolina state flag on the left, and the notorious X-shape of the Confederate flag on the right.

In light of the Confederate imagery, Mt. Olive Pickles announced it would be withdrawing its support, writing on social media that “our company stands on values of human dignity, opportunity and freedom.”

Now, organizers say the video has been taken down from the booth.

What video was shown on monitors in the booth?

According to Spevco, the video on display in the booth was a 45-minute history video about North Carolina publicly available on YouTube. The video, posted four years ago by creator “That Is Interesting” is titled “North Carolina - The US Explained,” and is part of a video “deep dive” series on each U.S. state.

“What was shown on many outlets and social media was a screenshot of the few seconds the flag was shown from the YouTube video being played on the screens,” a Spevco spokeperson told The N&O in a statement. “SPEVCO did not create, produce, edit, approve or select this historical video to be shown at the NC tent.”

In the beginning of the video, around minute three, the host, Carter Stacy, talks the viewer through his opinion of North Carolina’s state flag.

First, Stacy shows the current state flag.

“As state flag designs go, I’d put North Carolina’s somewhere in the middle,” he says in the video. “It doesn’t go with the classic state seal on blue background design that so many states have taken up. It’s not a bad-looking design, with a blue vertical bar, red and white horizontal bars, and a star surrounded by the state’s abbreviation and two ribbons.”

Then, Stacy switches to a view where the red and white bars of the state flag are replaced by the X-shaped Confederate battle flag.

“My biggest complaint with North Carolina’s flag, though, is that it is based off the flag the state used when it was part of the Confederacy, a trend that is unfortunately still very common among the Southern flags.”

But the flag in the video, and in turn the one in the Great American State Fair booth, doesn’t match the flag flown in North Carolina during the Civil War.

Was the Confederate battle flag ever part of NC’s flag?

North Carolina did not have a state flag until the constitutional convention of 1861, according to NCpedia, a resource managed by the state Government & Heritage Library. That year, it adopted a flag it used throughout the Civil War and until the current flag’s design was adopted in 1885.

That flag is not the flag shown in The US Explained video.

The real historical flag, however, does feature Confederate symbolism. On the left, there is a vertical red field with a star. Above the star is the same May 20, 1775, date as on the current flag — the debunked date of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. But instead of the 1776 date that currently sits below the star, the original flag features a May 20, 1861, date commemorating the day North Carolina seceded from the Union.

To the right of the red field with the star and dates are two horizontal blue and white fields — not the Confederate battle flag, as shown in Stacy’s video. The News & Observer reached out to Stacy to ask where he found the flag shown in the video but did not receive a response in time for publication.

In 1885, the state legislature adopted the current flag, replacing the secession date with April 12, 1776, in honor of the Halifax Resolves.

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