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.

 

2 thoughts on “State motto: ‘You’re not from around here, are you?’”

  1. I thought that this was not only the state motto, but the motto for Mecklenburg County. When I was doing my Senior Research paper last semester on Negro migration within the South (focusing on the Charlotte area) during the Second World War, I found this quote in the 1943 Hill’s City Directory:

    “Charlotte’s labor is of the finest in the country today – native, white, sober, industrious. Labor troubles are practically unknown and the labor turnover is small”

    Hills 1943 City Directory, Hills Directory Company (Richmond, VA) page 21 (Introduction)

    This is a good introduction for anyone who wants to explore this topic and expand on it.

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