Lumbee Indians

January 18th

ON THIS DAY in North Carolina history...

1958:

Deep in Robeson County, the Lumbee Indians have been the target of the revived Ku Klux Klan. It is an attempt to gain traction in North Carolina, where the revived Klan hasn’t found the welcome it has in other states across the country. Led by South Carolina Grand Dragon James "Catfish" Cole, three days earlier the Klan had burned crosses in front of two Lumbee homes and a tavern the Indians were known to frequent.

It has been a rough year for Cole and the Klan and their attempts to gain a foothold in North Carolina. The past October Cole and the Klan had tried to intimidate the Monroe, North Carolina chapter of the NAACP. After sending death threats to the local black doctor, Dr. Albert Perry, the Klan organize a motorcade to Dr. Perry's home on October 5th. Shooting up houses along the way, when they reach Dr. Perry's home they gleefully begin to shoot it up. Suddenly a devastating return fire comes from the doctor's home. Several black World War 2 veterans have done a little organizing themselves, and they rout the Klan from carefully fortified positions. After this, the Klan turn their attention to the Lumbee Indians.

ON THIS NIGHT the Klan has planned a rally. Declaring war to a gathering of about 75 Klansman, Cole announces that "...we're gonna burn some crosses and scare 'em up." The requisite Klan cross has been erected in the glare of a single light bulb that provides the only illumination. The Klansman are just beginning their ritual when a shotgun blast rips through the night, taking the single light bulb with it.

In the sudden darkness, a thousand Lumbee Indians descend on the hapless Klan. Chaos reigns in a darkness illuminated by searing shotgun blasts, and small arms fire. Although some Klan briefly return fire, most of them desperately flee, shedding their distinctive white sheets as they go.

Klansmen frantically flee the scene, leaving four wounded Klan, their unlit cross, family members, the public address system, and various Klan regalia behind. Grand Dragon Cole leaves his wife behind as he escapes through a nearby swamp. Cole won't stop until he is back in South Carolina, leaving his wife to make her own way back. This time the law takes notice, and on top of the Klan's humiliation and presumably his wife's wrath, Cole will serve a prison sentence for inciting a riot.

To this day the Lumbee celebrate as a holiday the anniversary of the “Battle of Hayes Pond.”

And the Klan? The Klan never hold another meeting in Robeson County.

Pictured:

1) The Flag of the Lumbee

2) The Battle of Hayes Pond

3) The Battle of Hayes Pond

4) Lumbee warriors Simeon Oxendine [left] and Charlie Warriax [right] with the captured KKK Flag were World War 2 veterans who led the Lumbee raid. Oxendine was the head of the Lumbee chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He flew more than thirty missions against the Germans in World War II.

My youngest son and I were a members of a church in Pembroke, NC, where many of the Lumbee lived, a couple of decades after the KKK tried to intimidate them. We lived in Lumberton NC.