Take this presidential quiz

This year, President Barack Obama will come to Charlotte on the final night of the Democratic National Convention to give an internationally televised acceptance speech at Bank of America Stadium. It’ll be the latest in a long history of connections between U.S. presidents and Charlotte, Mecklenburg County and North Carolina.

How much of that history do you know? Find out by taking this quiz.

1. North Carolina claims three presidents as native sons. Which of the trio hailed from Mecklenburg County?

A) Andrew Jackson

B) James K. Polk

C) Andrew Johnson

2. In a campaign speech at Charlotte Coliseum, which presidential candidate extolled North Carolina’s long tradition as a Democratic Party stronghold?

A) John Kennedy in 1960.

B) Harry Truman in 1948.

C) Woodrow Wilson in 1916.

3. When Charlotte decided to honor its most famous native son with “Billy Graham Day,” which sitting president came to town to speak?

A) Lyndon Johnson in 1967.

B) Richard Nixon in 1971.

C) Ronald Reagan in 1985.

4. Which president spent his freshman year at Davidson College?

A) William McKinley in 1861-62.

B) Herbert Hoover in 1892-93.

C) Woodrow Wilson in 1873-74.

5. After visiting Charlotte, which president wrote in his diary that it was “a trifling place”?

A) George Washington in 1791.

B) Thomas Jefferson in 1803.

C) Ulysses Grant in 1873.

6. Which president came to Charlotte to watch the basketball team from his home-state university win the NCAA championship?

A) George W. Bush

B) Richard Nixon

C) Bill Clinton

7. In 2008, Sen. Barack Obama became the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry North Carolina since:

A) Jimmy Carter in 1976.

B) Bill Clinton in 1996.

C) Hubert Humphrey in 1968.

8. This president was set to give a stemwinder of a speech at the corner of Trade and Tryon streets. But a record rainfall forced a retreat into the City Auditorium.

A) William Howard Taft in 1909.

B) Theodore Roosevelt in 1905.

C) Bill Clinton in 1993.

9. NASCAR Hall of Famer Junior Johnson’s 1956 conviction for moonshining was wiped clean by a presidential pardon from this White House occupant:

A) Ronald Reagan

B) Dwight Eisenhower

C) Jimmy Carter

10. He was the only sitting president to visit Billy Graham at his mountaintop home in Montreat, N.C.

A) Richard Nixon

B) George H.W. Bush

C) Barack Obama

11. This president promoted his economic program during the keynote speech at Charlotte’s newly constructed American Legion Stadium:

A) Harry Truman in 1951.

B) Franklin Roosevelt in 1936.

C) John Kennedy in 1961.

12. John Edwards was the latest Tar Heel to run for president. Which of the following N.C. politicians did NOT try to win the White House?

A) Terry Sanford in 1972 and 1976.

B) Sam Ervin in 1956.

C) Elizabeth Dole in 2000.

13. Beloved N.C. actor – and longtime Democrat – Andy Griffith was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by which president:

A) George W. Bush in 2005.

B) Bill Clinton in 1997.

C) Richard Nixon in 1969.

14. When Charlotte’s Billy Graham Library was dedicated, the evangelist was joined on stage by Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and:

A) George W. Bush

B) Jimmy Carter

C) Ronald Reagan

15. This president was served fried chicken and ham biscuits when he came to Charlotte to give a speech at Freedom Park:

A) Dwight Eisenhower in 1954.

B) Lyndon Johnson in 1965.

C) Calvin Coolidge in 1924.

16. The first 1988 presidential debate between Republican George H.W. Bush and Democrat Michael Dukakis was held at:

A) Duke University in Durham.

B) University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

C) Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem.

17. When he read a latter-day copy of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence – drawn up a year before Thomas Jefferson’s more famous Declaration – which ex-president said, “ The genuine sense of America at that moment was never expressed so well before, nor since”:

A) Harry Truman in 1957.

B) John Adams in 1819.

C) Abraham Lincoln in 1862.

18. Charlotte businessman Erskine Bowles served as White House chief of staff for which president:

A) Barack Obama.

B) Jimmy Carter.

C) Bill Clinton.

19. Which visitor to Charlotte was the Charlotte Observer referring in its editorial headlined, “You Were Wrong, Mr. President”?

A) Gerald Ford, for pardoning Richard Nixon in 1974.

B) Ronald Reagan, for calling busing a failed social experiment in 1984.

C) Lyndon Johnson, for escalating the Vietnam War in 1966.

20. Reggie Love, who attended Providence Day High School in Charlotte and played basketball at Duke, was the “body man” – or personal assistant – for which president:

A) Bill Clinton.

B) George W. Bush.

C) Barack Obama.

ANSWERS: 1. B; 2. A; 3. B; 4. C; 5. A; 6. C; 7. A; 8. A; 9. A; 10. C; 11. B; 12. B; 13. A; 14. B; 15. A; 16. C; 17. B; 18. C; 19. B; 20. C.