State motto: ‘You’re not from around here, are you?’

“RALEIGH, N.C. (U.P.) — North Carolina’s percentage of native born white inhabitants — 99.7 — is the highest of any state in the country.”

— From “Few Aliens in North Carolina,” news filler in the Wall Street Journal (April 28, 1941)

The state’s industrial recruiters considered this demographic characteristic a point of pride.