American Geographical Society

IDENTITY, BANAL NATIONALISM, CONTESTATION, AND NORTH AMERICAN LICENSE

PLATES
Author(s): JONATHAN LEIB
Source: Geographical Review, Vol. 101, No. 1, Popular Icons (January 2011), pp. 37-52
Published by: American Geographical Society
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 IDENTITY, BANAL NATIONALISM, CONTESTATION,
AND NORTH AMERICAN LICENSE PLATES*

JONATHAN LEIB

abstract. In the early 1900s, U.S. state and Canadian provincial governments began to
ister automobiles and issue license plates to their owners. Within several decades of th
issuance of license plates, state and provincial governments began to use these pla
advertising purposes, such as promoting local economies and tourism. In recent de
however, governments have used license plates to promote national identities and nati
ideals. Using examples from the United States and Canada, I examine how governmen
used such banal signifiers of place as license plates to craft and promote these identiti
how drivers have contested that usage. Keywords: automobility, banal nationalismy co
tion, identity license plate.

the automobile era, one of the most visible expressions of a person'

residence is on the license plate attached to his/her vehicle. In 1903 Mass
became the first state to issue a standard license plate on which the state of r
tion was clearly marked, and by 1918 all of the then U.S. states and Cana
inces had issued place-identified plates (Marvin 1963; Fox 1994). Within
decades of the first issuance of license plates, state and provincial gove
through the use of pictures and slogans, began to use these devices for a
purposes, such as promoting local economies and tourism. Early exampl
Prince Edward Islands 1928 license plate promoting its two leading "agr
products, seed potatoes and foxes, and New York and California's compet
to the 1939 World's Fair.
The rise of the automobile led to the creation of an automobile "sign
(Jakle and Sculle 2004), in which signage on and along the sides of roads
automobile drivers, produce "larger meanings and representations abou
culture, and identity" (Gade 2003, 430). Tim Edensor suggested that road
tain numerous other types of texts that create meanings and representations
and identity (2003, 2004). Reproduced throughout a country, he noted,
features, from the markings on road surfaces to street lighting, garages
boxes, help "consolidate a national sense of being in place" (2004, 108). Ke
and John Jakle suggest that license plates fit into this larger automobile sign
"moving signs." They argue that the pictures and slogans on license pla
tribute to peoples' sense of place- to how they conceptualize themselve
geographically situated" (2008, 57).
By the middle-to-late-twentieth century some countries and localities
ous parts of the world started to use pictures and slogans on their license

* I wish to thank Tom Chapman, Frank Crooks, Jason Dittmer, Ben Forest, Pauliina Raento, Tim Sten
Webster, and the anonymous reviewers for their advice and assistance with this project.

*<£> Dr. Leib is an associate professor of geography at Old Dominion University, Norfol
23529-0088; [jleib@odu.edu].

The Geographical Review 101 (1): 37-52, January 2011

Copyright © 2011 by the American Geographical Society of New York

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38 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

reasons other than just advertising local economies and

ments had imposed license plates on drivers in order t
state, monitor their movements, and enable law enforceme
ers, governments started to use their license plates for
establish sovereignty, to pursue geopolitical claims to te
tionalist identity and ideology. Using examples from th
among the first places to imprint place-names and use s
license plates, I explore how government officials have
place as the license plate to promote identity and nation
contested that usage.

Government, Identity, Banal Nationalism, and the Automobile

The twentieth century witnessed the rise of what John Urry argued is "the quintes-
sential manufactured object": the automobile (2004, 25). With 1 billion cars built, he
referred to the past hundred years as "the century of the car" (p. 27). And for much
of that century the state was an active participant in promoting the automobile,
most importantly in road construction but also by favoring the automobile over
alternate means of transportation (Paterson 2007). Peter Merriman, in his studies
of governmentality, control, and the British motorway system, suggests that
government's shaping of the numerous rules and regulations of how and where its
citizens drive provides one example of its efforts to exert control over their lives
(2005, 2007).
Beyond a simple means of facilitating mobility, automobiles have also become
bound up in the formation of national identity. Edensor's studies of the role of the
English automobile industry and motorscapes in the shaping and reinforcement of
national identity demonstrated that automobiles and their manufacturers help shape
our sense of identity within places (2002, 2004). He noted the important role that
automobility has in creating and reinforcing national identity, "including state regu-
lation; the geographies of 'roadscapes'; driving practices, styles and cultural activi-
ties carried out in cars; the auto service industries; types of journey; the range of
representations which centre upon cars; everyday discourse; the economic impor-
tance of the symbolic motor industry; and the affordances of vehicles and roads"
(2004, 103).
Through automobility, governments have played an active role in both control-
ling the actions of drivers and shaping national identities. They require owners to
attach license plates to their automobiles as a visible way of demonstrating proof of
registration; and, in various parts of the world, political elites have used these li-
cense plates to craft images of their state or locality that is visible daily to much of
the populace. In so doing, governments are actively using these moving signs in
much the same way as they use other landscape features to shape identities among
its population (Till 2003; Johnson 2004). As Don Mitchell suggested, landscape is
"an imposition of power: power made concrete in the bricks, mortar, stones, tar, and
lumber of the city, town, village, or rural setting- or on canvas or photo-stock"

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 LICENSE PLATES 39

(2000, 123; italics in the orig

license plate.
Michael Billigs concept of "b
attempts to script identity th
along with the more spectacu
at specific times, nationalism
in myriad small and subtle w
markable. As Billig stated, th
which is being consciously wa
ticed on the public building"
tity is primarily constituted ou
everyday habits and routines
(2004, 101).
Since 2000, geographers have analyzed the banal nationalism inscribed into com-
monplace items ^such as postage stamps, currency, flags, and street names (see, for
example, Webster and Leib 2001; Alderman 2003; Raento and others 2004; Raento
and Brunn 2005). And in car cultures, one of the most common signifiers of place is
the license plate. Through the designs reproduced on their citizens' license plates,
governments are literally scripting identity. As Jason Dittmer suggests, analyzing
"the construction of scripts that mold common perceptions of political events" is
important "for a full understanding of both national identities and global orders"
(2005, 626). Constructing these scripts through their license plates provide govern-
ments one way to mold common perceptions of identity.
At the same time, however, these nationalist and identity scriptings are not al-
ways top-down processes. Along with accepting these governmental scriptings, in-
dividuals, by defacing or altering their license plates, can contest the official
representation imposed by the state and promote alternative representations. How-
ever, government authorities do not necessarily ignore challenges to these official
representations on license plates. For example, an important 1977 U.S. Supreme
Court decision upheld the First Amendment rights of drivers to deface the slogan
promoted by the government on license plates. The Court ruled in favor of a New
Hampshire driver who was arrested for covering up and then cutting off the state
motto "Live Free or Die" on his plate, arguing that, according to his religious and
moral beliefs, life was more precious than freedom.
Such controversy over the designs of license plates reinforces the contention
that "even the most banal forms of nationalism clearly have the potential to become
foci of heated identity battles if a perceived sense of threat emerges" (Raento and
others 2004, 930-931). Rhys Jones and Peter Merriman question how banal such
everyday reinforcements of nationalism are, recognizing that whether a symbol of
the nation is seen as "banal" or contentious depends on who is doing the viewing
(2009). Just because one signifier of the nation may be mundane and unremarkable
to some does not mean that it is not controversial and a potential site of contesta-
tion to others. In the remainder of this article I explore how identity, banal nation-

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40 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

alism, and contestation intersect in the desi

cense plates.

Identity, Banal Nationalism, and License-Plate Design

The use of slogans on license plates has been a popular way of promoting national-
ist ideals by, for example, marking national historic dates and celebrations. In 1967
five of Canada's ten provinces marked that country's centennial celebration on their
license plates; and in 1976 eighteen states and the District of Columbia recognized
the United States bicentennial on their
plates. The color combinations chosen
for license plates also contribute to this
effort. Of the nineteen plates honor-
ing the bicentennial, sixteen included
the red, white, and blue of the Ameri-
can flag. In these ways, license plates
have become government tools to re-
inforce nationalism.

However, governments can also

use their license plates to challenge one
nationalist ideal and promote another.
The best-known North American ex-
ample is that of Quebec. Starting in
1963, Quebec's license plates carried
the slogan La belle province. In Novem-
ber 1976 the Parti Quebecois (pq), the
Fig. 1- Quebec's 1977 {La belle province) and
1978 (Je me souviens) license plates. (Photographnationalist
by political party seeking in-
the author, July 2009)
dependence for Quebec, won control
of the province's legislature for the first
time. One month later the pq government announced that it was replacing the La
belle province with Quebec's motto, Je me souviens . The new slogan first appeared on
Quebec's license plates in 1978 and is still found there (Figure 1). Although ques-
tions as to the correct interpretation of Je me souviens have arisen, the Quebec
government's Societe de l'Assurance Automobile states that the motto on the li-
cense plate is meant as a "reminder of Quebec history" (saa n.d.). Of course, as
Paul Adams suggested, Quebecois nationalist history "means looking back to the
heroic [French] period before the English conquest of 1759" and not forgetting the
following centuries of English domination (2004, 774). Or, as Daniel Gade suggested,
Quebec's "Je me souviens motto- which suggests the duty of remembrance-
implicitly addresses cultural continuity in spite of the British conquest of New
France" (2003, 444-445).
In its report, the Associated Press noted two important aspects of the slogan
change. First, by removing La belle province, pq officials were removing "the "pro-
vincial" connotation" previously exhibited on its license plates, thereby suggesting

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 LICENSE PLATES 41

that Quebec in the future mi

phrase, Je me souviens, "evokes
presence in North America." A
me souviens would "adhere m
ince' " (quoted in ap 1976). On
at least, did not include the res
switch just as the new plates
ing issued in February 1978,
[Je me souviens] better. It's mo
becois. La belle province was
it was federalist at the same tim
minded you you were part of
eration" (quoted in Goyette 1
Although the Je me souviens
promoted Quebecois natio
Quebec's 1967 license plate be
site of protest against gove
scripting of broader ideals of C
unity. Instead of including the
province slogan, that year ea
mobile in the province recei
different plates: one for the fro
vehicle celebrating Montreal's E
and one for the rear, with t
"1867-1967," the word confed
and a red maple leaf in celebr
Fig. 2 - Quebec's 1
Canada's year. H centennial
proseparatist attach
rather than Crooks,
seeing the
Julycenten
2009;
celebration, photographer)
Quebec separatis
as a time to highlight and prot
domination by Anglo Canad
a campaign to portray the histo
(Belanger 2008). Separatists a
centennial celebration, includ
Berton 1998) (Figure 2). Sepa
beneath the 1867 confed&atio
cracked down" on the practic
With advancements in silk-s
become common features on
national identity, nationalism
became very common icons af
issued specialty license plates
"United We Stand" and "Fight

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42 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

have gained complete acceptance. In Puerto

revolve primarily around the island's future st
try or state or retaining its commonwealth
commonwealth Puerto Rican government is
that commemorated the fiftieth anniversar
and prominently featured both U.S. and Puer
island's government d
ance of the plates as a
memoration of the 1952
Puerto Rican citizens, in
statehood and independe
ers, refused to affix th
their vehicles. As one
dence Puerto Rican senato
plate would force drivers
Fig. 3- This Puerto Ricobillboards" in support
license plate marks the o
fiftieth anniversary of the island's commonwealth
commonwealth status a
status. (Photograph by Neiset Bayouth, July 2007;
reproduced courtesy of themonwealth governmen
photographer)
James 2002). When the
backed down
Fig. 4- A 1988 New Brunswick and
license made d
plate
with Nouveau-Brunswick newpainted over.optional,
plate (Photograph
oppo
by the author, July 2009)
that people who chose n
new plate on their ve
stand out as opponents o
ment (James 2002; Rom
son 2003). In this case, A
license plates, rather than
symbol of nationalist pr
site of contestation conce
Rico's future.

Identity, Language, and License Plates

The politics of identity and nationalism can play out in bilingual or multilingual
societies through the choice of language used in place-names (Berg and Kearns
1996; Raento and Watson 2000; Jones and Merriman 2009). The choice of language
used for place-names and slogans on license plates has raised identity questions in
Canada, given the historic language divide between English and French. For ex-
ample, officials in both Prince Edward Island and Ontario now allow drivers the
option of choosing French-language license plates rather than the provinces' stan-
dard English-language plates. Ontario drivers may choose either French- or En-
glish-language slogans on their plates, and drivers in Prince Edward Island can choose
the provincial name and plate slogan in either language (gpei 2007; oofa 2008).
The language issue has been most prominent concerning New Brunswick's li-
cense plates. From 1958 to 1971 they featured both the provincial name and the slogan

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 LICENSE PLATES 43

"Picture Province." However,

phone. As tensions between Fre
tics played out in Canada in the
in New Brunswick, culminat
Brunswick Act, which "gave b
(Stanley 1993, 449). Given thi
next general-issue license plat
spelled out the name "New B
( Nouveau-Brunswick ). Ever s
Language issues continued as
throughout the 1970s and 19
residents and to the beginnin
movement that culminated in
tion of Regions Party of New
ways in which cor-nb membe
ism in the province was by
Brunswick on their license plat
(Collectif Taupe 2006) (Figure
and Prince Edward Island, lic
promoting and contesting Ca

Identity and Optional Specialty License Plates

A middle ground does exist between identity scripted by governments

plates and individual contestation of these representations: optional spe
cense plates. Most U.S. states and many Canadian provinces issue plates d
specific causes that drivers may purchase instead of the standard-issue lic
This practice allows drivers to choose the representations they wish to p
their vehicles. Specialty license plates first appeared in the United Stat
when Georgia, Maryland, and Virginia issued optional plates for the U.S.
nial. However, most states circumscribe these choices by requiring legi
approve the representations that the public may choose. Most specialty
uncontroversial, representing colleges and universities, sports teams, pla
gions, organizations and a variety of other causes.
The approval process has been contested, however. The two most cont
groups of specialty license plates have dealt with regional identity and religio
states have allowed drivers to purchase specialty license plates that high
cific ethnic identities; Idaho's "Basque Heritage" is an example. In terms
identity, heated debates have occurred over whether members of the So
federate Veterans (scv) should be allowed to purchase license plates tha
organization's seal, which prominently features the Civil War's most recogniz
the Confederate battle emblem (Figure 5). Some whites in the U.S. South
emblem as a symbol of heritage and/or regional pride, whereas many African
cans see it as a racist symbol of hatred and intolerance (Webster and L

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44 the geographical review

These debates over scv license plates

region over whether states should fl
include it in their state flags (Leib and
issue such plates in 1996; however, g
after the state's Legislative Black Ca
governor supported. The scv sued i
issued, despite objections (Jacobs 20
As of 2006, scv specialty plates, pr
were available for purchase in nine s
legislative process by which the scv
bate in several states (Scoppe 1997; W
Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, la

Fig. 5 (left)- A Virg

federate Veterans opti
plate. (Photograph by th

Fig. 6 (below)-' Thirtee

cialty license plates that
Kretschmer 2009. (Cart
Chapman, Old Dominio

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 LICENSE PLATES 45

force reticent state legislat

(Guggenheim and Silversmith
Confederate identity, and wh
ofspeculation that the motto
was first put on the plates in
manifestation of Alabama pol
movement. Since the late 1980s
remove the slogan from the
Leib 2002). In 2002 an African A
slogan on her plate (Jubera 2
Throughout 2002 the state o
which the "Heart of Dixie" sl

Fig. 7 (right)- An Indiana "In G

Trust" license plate. (Photograph by t
July 2009)

Fig. 8 (below)- Fifty- five Native Ameri-

can tribes in ten states issue their own dis-
tinctive license plates. Source: Kustermann
2009. (Cartography by Thomas Chapman, Old
Dominion University)

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46 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

road- to which it added a prominent new slogan, "Star

ing the switch, Democratic Governor Don Siegleman
Alabamians viewed the "Heart of Dixie" slogan with
thoughts of the Civil War, slavery and mistreatment o
in Rawls 2004). With the state working to recruit inter
nor Siegleman authorized the switch "to foster positiv
2004). However, not everyone approved of the change.
cates distributed "Heart of Dixie" stickers to paste ove
their new plates in protest (Dragon 2005).
Issues of religion have also been controversial in the
license plates, including those for anti-abortion and exp
2007). Controversial too are plates that fuse God and n
the national motto "In God We Trust," the patriotic so
the phrase "One Nation under God" from the Pledge o
plates bring together religion and nationalism, in that
God most of them feature an American flag- and in
iconic features, such as the bald eagle or the Statue of Lib
osity and patriotism in the U.S. South (Phillips 2006), it m
of 2008, most, though not all, of the states with this f
their license plates were in that region. The "In God W
growth of a movement initiated by a conservative Christi
can Family Association (afa), to lobby state legislatur
signs reading "In God We Trust" in public schools. Th
serve as a "reminder of the historical centrality of God in
n.d., quoted in Hill 2010, 709), but opponents argued
signs is to inject religion, specifically Christianity, int
2005).
Controversy over "In God We Trust" plates also arose in Indiana (Figure 7).
Fusing God and nationalism, the plate, first issued in 2007, prominently features the
motto and an American flag. Indiana state representative Woody Burton suggested
that "both patriots and those of faith" would embrace the plate when he first intro-
duced the legislation to create it in 2005. When the plate failed in the legislature,
Burton reintroduced it the next year, this time successfully, arguing that "I'm a Chris-
tian, but I don't care if you're Christian or Jewish or Muslim

be my god, but this is still a country that's based on faith. Wh

your license plate?" (quoted in Huffstutter 2007). Not every
interpretation of God so broadly: As one Indiana driver to
"I'm Catholic and I'm American, so it represents the things
Huntington 2007).
Within the first eight months of issuance, more than 1 m
had chosen the "In God We Trust" plate instead of the state
At the same time, some drivers complained that some stat
hicles employees pushed the specialty plate, some of them

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 LICENSE PLATES 47

drivers when they went to r

American Civil Liberties Uni
the plate failed in 2008. The a
treated in a manner similar to
"it allows the motorist to exp
In turn, the state appellate cour
God We Trust," our national
since the license plate can be
national citizenship or patrio
belief' (cai 2008).
Even though Burton interpret
ing all monotheistic religions
South Carolina began to issue
the flags of the United State
ists of the Low Country, base
lobbying for, and finally rece
the motto "In Reason We Tru
belief in God was not a requi

Identity, Native American Nations, and License Plates

Because license plates in the United States and Canada are government-issued rep-
resentations of places, people who are not within the dominant North American
political-geographical framework have also created and issued plates to promote
and (re)present their identity. The leading example involves the issuance of distinc-
tive license plates in the United States by Native American nations.
Starting with the Red Lake Chippewa Band in Minnesota in 1974, fifty-fifty Na-
tive American tribes in ten states have issued their own plates (Washburn 1996;
Good and Woodbeck 2005). Tribes in Oklahoma issue twenty-nine such plates (Fig-
ure 8). Native Americans' plates are usually distinct in design from the plates of the
states in which the tribal territory is located. Many of them contain symbols, seals,
and/or language that promote tribal identity (Figure 9), and if they carry a state
designation, it is solely for the purpose of identification by out-of-state police. In
some cases, such as those of the Miccosukee and Seminole tribes in Florida, state
motor- vehicle agencies issue plates to tribal members that are similar in design to
the state's regular plates.
Native American attempts to issue license plates have served as points of con-
troversy between tribes and the states over matters of Native American identity,
sovereignty, and self-determination. The long-contested legal relationship between
tribes, the states, and the federal government is complex (Fouberg 2000). Though
referred to as "sovereign", Native American tribes are neither sovereign in the tra-
ditional political-geographical sense nor the equivalent of U.S. states (Ranco and
Suagee 2007; Dahlman 2009). Instead, as Steven Silvern suggested, Native American
tribes "are semi-autonomous, retain powers of self-government and occupy a unique

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48 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

niche within the nested, hierarchically organized, poli

ture of American Federalism," with the states and Nat
over jurisdictional control (1999, 640). "Native peoples
of state jurisdiction and fought to protect their distinct,
and thus maintain the ability to control their territories,
and political life" (p. 640).
In this struggle for control,
vern noted in the same articl
temporary state-tribal geo-
conflicts often involve extensive and
expensive litigation" (1999, 640), and
the disputes over the issuance of tribal
license plates are no exception. Since the
1970s a series of state and federal court
cases have dealt with whether indi-
Fig. 9- A Cherokee Nation license
vidual plate.
states may bar federally recog-
(Photograph by the author, July
nized2009)
Indian tribes on reservations

Fig. 10- An Abenaki Nationwithin the state's

license borders from issuing
plate.
their2009)
(Photograph by the author, July own license plates or tribal mem-
bers must register their vehicles with the
state in which their reservation is lo-
cated. One of the most recent cases was
an eight-year-long dispute between the
Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and
the state of Kansas concerning whether
the state could arrest nation members
for driving outside their reservation
with Potawatomi plates, rather than
Kansas plates, on their vehicles. After a series of court decisions, in 2007 the Federal
Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Potawatomi (ca 2007). Given the
visibility of license plates, some non-federally recognized tribes, such as Vermont's
Abenaki Nation (Figure 10), have issued plates that highlight their existence as part of
their assertion of legitimacy (Haviland and Power 1994; Wiseman 2001).
State governments have not contested every tribal attempt to issue distinctive
license plates, however. In 2002 the Cherokee Nation entered into a first-of-its-kind
compact with Oklahoma whereby the state agreed to recognize the nation's plates
and have them entered into "a national motor vehicle database" used by law-
enforcement officials across the country. The database includes all state-issued plates,
thereby putting the Cherokee plates on a par with those of the states. The Cherokee
Nation press release about the agreement promoted the status of the Cherokee Na-
tion by noting that leaders of both entities signed the compact: Cherokee Principal
Chief Chad Smith and Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating. Chief Smith heralded
the compact, stressing that "Automobile tags are a symbol of the Cherokee Nation's

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 LICENSE PLATES 49

sovereignty and governmenta

the very act of issuing license p
both to its members and to out
from that of other U.S. resident

Identity on the Bumper

In car cultures of the early twenty- first century, automobiles are an integral par
personal and national identities. Attached to a vehicle, license plates are an ex
sion of that identity. Crafted by governments, the slogans on and designs of
plates provide one visible means for governments to mold expressions of these
tities tied directly to the place imprinted on that plate. Given their ubiquity, lice
plates also provide a means by which that government-sponsored identity c
contested. In those places with ongoing disputes over identity issues, license
provide a highly visible site of contestation.
In their study of the political iconography found on Euro coinage, Raento
her coauthors noted that "money, stamps, and place names are ... a significan
lamentably marginal part of the research on political iconography. . . . The me
of money, stamps, and place names are taken for granted exactly because of
omnipresence" (2004, 930). Academics have also ignored license plates as com
government-crafted representations of places. However, this marginalization of ba
markers of identity and nationalism within academic research is changing. As
argued, whether in the representations crafted by governments and their con
tion by groups and individual drivers, or in the debates over what represent
governments allow individuals to display on their vehicles, license plates, as a
form of nationalism and identity, clearly deserve more study.

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