U.S. Sen. Robert Reynolds of Asheville complained of the "pampering" that Japanese-Americans were receiving in World War II internment camps.

Terry Sanford, the Democratic nominee for governor, was disinvited as guest speaker at his Methodist church in Fayetteville when he endorsed John F. Kennedy, a Catholic, for president in 1960.

Given that history of nativism, one is tempted to hold one's breath when North Carolina politicians begin discussing immigration policy.

But as taquerias replace barbecue joints, the issue -- most specifically how to handle the wave of Hispanic immigration -- is slowly seeping into this year's election debate.

So far the talk has been within bounds. Republican gubernatorial candidates have voiced reservations about President Bush's proposed immigration reforms and criticized Democratic Gov. Mike Easley's administration for being too lenient in awarding driver licenses to illegal immigrants.

GOP candidates, however, have stressed that they are not immigrant-bashing.

But it seems clear as I travel around the state that some North Carolinians find the new wave of immigrants -- with their different language and culture -- a bit unsettling. And some politicians are trying to tap into that unease.

Unlike many other states, North Carolina is not used to large-scale immigration. When it industrialized, it filled its factories with white sharecroppers from the mountains and countryside, not Polish, Italian or Irish immigrants.

For much of its history, North Carolina exported people -- whites in the 19th century westward and blacks in the 20th century to the Northern cities.

Even so, nativist politics occasionally surfaced in criticism of Catholics, Jews and immigrants.

In 1906, Simmons, the state's powerful Democratic boss, pushed through the U.S. Senate an amendment that would have created a national literacy test for voting, similar to what North Carolina and other Southern states had for blacks. When the amendment was killed in the House, Simmons blamed the steamship and railroad lobbies that made money from immigrants.

In the 1940s, Reynolds set up an anti-immigrant organization called The Vindicators Association on Capitol Hill. He urged Americans to form seven-member neighborhood organizations, called The Circle of Seven, to monitor suspicious-looking foreigners.

Reynolds had a program for boys ages 10 to 18 called the Border Patrol, in which they could earn a badge and $20 for catching "alien crooks" -- whoever that might be.

The current wave of Hispanic migration -- North Carolina had the fastest-growing immigrant population of any state during the 1990s -- has the potential to stretch the social fabric of what has historically been one of the most homogeneous states in the country.

And this gubernatorial race could help set the tone of how North Carolina discusses its first great ethnic immigration wave in 150 years.