The Other Lone Star State? North Carolina—Texas says No

AUSTIN, Texas (TXAN 24) — Go to any grocery store in Texas, and you’ll see it. It’s on our beer, our belt buckles, our toll roads, and the back windows of about three out of every five pickup trucks. We are the Lone Star State.

We’ve practically copyrighted the concept of celestial minimalism.

So you can imagine the sudden state of confusion when you look at the official state flag of North Carolina and notice something glaring sitting right in the center of the canvas: a single, five-pointed white star.

Wait… seriously?

Texas is the Lone Star State; so why does North Carolina have a lone star on its flag too? Did someone in Raleigh borrow our homework? Is there a secret brotherhood of single-star states?

TXAN 24 decided to dig into the archives, consult the historians, and map out the timeline behind this cross-country flag mystery.

To understand why Texas holds the trademark on the single star, you have to rewind to the 1830s. Long before Texas was a state, the star was a symbol of defiance.

During the Texas Revolution in 1835, several localized revolutionary flags popped up featuring single stars—most notably Sarah Dodson’s blue, white, and red flag created for her husband’s company of Harrisburg volunteers. When the Republic of Texas won its independence in 1836, the provisional government adopted the "Burnet Flag," a solid azure field with a single gold star in the center.

By January 25, 1839, President Mirabeau B. Lamar signed the act officially adopting the flag we know today: a vertical blue stripe with a single white star, alongside two horizontal red and white stripes.

Historians at the Texas State Historical Association note that while folklore often assigns specific virtues to the colors (blue for loyalty, white for purity, red for bravery), the primary historical function of the single star was simple and literal: it represented a single, unified republic standing alone against Mexican authority. Texas wasn’t just using a star; it was operating as a standalone sovereign country under it.

If you look closely at North Carolina's flag, that white star sits squarely between a capital N and a capital C. Above and below the initials are two gold ribbons bearing historic dates:

May 20, 1775 and April 12, 1776.

North Carolina didn't adopt a state flag at all until the outbreak of the Civil War in June 1861. That original version featured a red field on the left with a single star and the date May 20, 1861 (marking the state's secession). In 1885, North Carolina state representative W.G. Burkhead introduced a bill to update the design, swapping the red vertical field to blue, standardizing the red and white horizontal bars, and replacing the secession date with April 12, 1776.

Those two dates explain why the star is there.

April 12, 1776 (The Halifax Resolves)

On this date, North Carolina’s Fourth Provincial Congress issued the Halifax Resolves, officially authorizing their delegates at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to vote for independence from Great Britain. It was the very first colonial legislature to take such a step.

May 20, 1775 (The Mecklenburg Declaration): 

This date is far more controversial. According to North Carolina tradition, citizens in Mecklenburg County drafted their own declaration of independence over a year before Thomas Jefferson wrote his. However, many historians—dating back to Jefferson himself—have questioned the document's authenticity, as the original text allegedly burned in an 1800 fire and was only reconstructed from memory years later. Authentic records do exist for the Mecklenburg Resolves passed on May 31, 1775, which suspended royal authority, but scholars remain sharply divided on whether a formal "declaration" occurred on May 20.

According to the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, the star serves as a central heraldic anchor—symbolizing state sovereignty within the American Union and tying together the state's early revolutionary claims.

In 19th-century America, stars were standard visual shorthand for statehood and independence, directly borrowed from the American national flag.

Texas didn't invent putting a star on a flag, and North Carolina didn't steal the concept from Texas.

Both states independently grabbed a standard symbol of American liberty and put it to work for their own historic narratives.

If both states fly a single star, why doesn't North Carolina get to share the nickname?

It comes down to timing and sovereignty. Texas spent nearly a decade from 1836 to 1845 as an international sovereign power flying its single star banner before joining the United States.

The nickname "Lone Star State" was coined during that era of standalone republic status and was firmly baked into American culture long before North Carolina designed its star-bearing flag in 1861.

While North Carolina built its flag around commemorating colonial dates, Texas built its entire national identity around the star itself.

North Carolina may feature a single star on its mast, but Texas spent ten years as an actual lone nation—and in true Texas fashion, we've claimed the cultural trademark ever since.