Confederate flag drew attention to NC booth at national fair. Here's what to know

A Confederate battle flag displayed on video monitors in North Carolina’s booth at the Great American State Fair in Washington, D.C., drew condemnation from the governor and cost the exhibit a major sponsor. The image, which was never part of the state’s actual Civil War-era flag, was then removed.

Here are key takeaways:

• Multiple TV monitors inside the booth showed part of the North Carolina state flag next to the X-shaped Confederate battle flag, an image that has never appeared in the state’s official flag — even during the Civil War.
• Mt. Olive Pickles withdrew its sponsorship after the imagery surfaced, saying the company “stands on values of human dignity, opportunity, and freedom.”
• Gov. Josh Stein — whose office had already pulled the state out of the fair over budget concerns — called the display divisive and demanded organizers “stop dishonoring the flag of North Carolina.”
• The footage came from a 45-minute YouTube documentary titled “North Carolina - The US Explained,” a spokesperson for sponsor Spevco said. That video was posted four years ago by creator Carter Stacy, whose channel “That Is Interesting” has 248,000 subscribers.
• North Carolina’s actual 1861 Civil War flag featured Confederate symbolism — including a secession date of May 20, 1861 — but used two horizontal blue and white bars, not the X-shaped battle flag shown in the video.
• Stacy said he intended to show the 1861 flag and blamed an editing error, though he later acknowledged he “must’ve accidentally grabbed the wrong image” after being asked about a Wikimedia source in his video description that displays the fabricated flag in full.
• Booth organizers included Richard Childress Racing, Spevco and strategic consultant Lorie Khatod, a former chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace; Spevco said it “did not create, produce, edit, approve or select” the video.

The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists, including politics editor Jordan Schrader. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by journalists.