For over a century, North Carolina has continued to treat sixteen year olds as adults in the criminal justice system. The Juvenile Court Statute of 1919 mandated sixteen as the upper age of criminality, cementing that age for all juvenile offenders for the next 100 years. This study explores the development of the juvenile justice system in North Carolina from the turn of the twentieth century to understand why legislators in 1919 chose the age sixteen as perceived adulthood. I argue that a multitude of reasons, primarily child labor in the state, fortified legislator’s decision to maintain the age of adulthood at sixteen, despite recommendations from newly emerged national organizations such as the Children’s Bureau and National Child Labor Committee. In order to understand how North Carolina became the last state to raise the age, one must first understand how the age was implemented into state law. I describe the significant organizations, individuals, institutions, and legislation that began the separate juvenile justice system in North Carolina.