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From an indigo hue to Carolina Blue: the history behind UNC’s school colors
By Emily Brietz, Published Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025 | Updated 9:13 p.m.
Many students, fans and alums have proudly proclaimed that UNC is home to “the better blue.” Carolina Blue became a widely used noun in the 1930s, but the history of this beloved blue dates back much further.
UNC’s Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies
The University’s colors originated from the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies, the literary and debate societies founded in 1795 that then formed a joint senate in 1959. Until the 1890s, UNC students were required to be a member of one of the societies.
“Because, effectively, every student was a member of Di or Phi, one or the other, they decided that [the University’s] colors should be the colors that represented the two societies,” Lilah Childers, the DiPhi historian, said.
The Dialectic Society’s blue is a symbol of excellence in agricultural regions like the state of North Carolina. Katherine Fiore, DiPhi’s joint senate president and UNC’s student body vice president, said the Philanthropic Society’s white has a disputed meaning.
“It symbolizes purity, but also liberty, which is part of [the University’s] motto — in Latin, that would be ‘lux libertas’ — and ‘libertas’ is where that white comes from,” Fiore said.
Nicholas Graham, an archivist with University Libraries, said that students in the 19th and 20th centuries were very proud of their DiPhi membership, and would actively distinguish themselves as members of one of the societies by wearing ribbons to graduation and other campus events.
In the 1880s, UNC football played a game against the University of Virginia, who were decked out in blue and orange. The defining colors and team spirit of UVA influenced the adoption of white and blue school colors for UNC.
“It was only natural that when UNC started competing in intercollegiate sports, they adapted the colors,” Graham said. “By the 20th century, [the colors] became more common throughout university publications, documents and then, eventually, were adopted as the official color.”
Carolina Blue’s deeper ties to the South
“Since [Carolina Blue] goes back to the 18th century, the main blue that they would have had access to would have been an indigo blue, because indigo was a color that was big in the colonies,” Marion Redd, a UNC Class of 1967 alumna who has worked in UNC Student Stores since 2000, said.
In the 18th century, darker blues were commonly associated with the wealthy and elite in Europe and throughout the American South — as in the phrase “blue blood.” The lighter shades — what we know as Carolina Blue today — were also popular amongst everyday folk, such as workers donning blue aprons.
Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: From an indigo hue to Carolina Blue: the history behind UNC’s school colors –
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