Battle of Hayes Pond
| Battle of Hayes Pond | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Ku Klux Klan |
Lumbee Tribe of NC
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| James W. Cole |
Sanford Locklear Simeon Oxendine Neill Lowery |
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| Strength | |||||||
| 50–100 Klansmen | 500 Lumbee | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 4 Klansmen injured 1 Klansman arrested (by police) |
Several disoriented or injured by tear gas grenades, none seriously. | ||||||
Lumbee victory
Lumbee Tribe of NC
The Battle of Hayes Pond was an armed confrontation between the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and the Lumbee Indians at a Klan rally near Maxton, North Carolina, on the night of January 18, 1958. Grand Dragon James W. "Catfish" Cole was the organizer of the Klan rally. Sanford Locklear, Simeon Oxendine and Neill Lowery were leaders of the Lumbee who attacked the Klansmen and successfully disrupted the rally.
In reaction to the US Supreme Court ruling in 1954 calling for public school desegregation, the revived Ku Klux Klan (KKK) undertook a campaign of terrorist actions throughout the American South designed to intimidate blacks from demanding even greater civil rights. Grand Dragon James W. "Catfish" Cole led the South Carolina-based Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
In 1956, the mixed-race inhabitants of Robeson County, North Carolina, who had unsuccessfully claimed Indian heritage under various tribal identities, succeeded in achieving limited federal recognition under the "Lumbee" label. The Lumbee campaign for federal recognition attracted the attention and outrage of Catfish Cole who considered the so-called Lumbee a "mongrel" race of largely African origin. Cole worried that the Lumbee, if successful in portraying themselves as Indians, would next attempt to "pass" as white, further blurring racial lines in the segregated South.
In 1957, Cole began a campaign of harassment designed to intimidate the Lumbee. He hoped to use his campaign against the Lumbee to build up the Klan organization in North Carolina. He believed that the "Lumbee" — marginalized even with the Indian community — would easily be frightened. Declaring war, Cole told newspapers: "There's about 30,000 half-breeds up in Robeson County and we are going to have some cross burnings and scare them up".
On January 13, 1958, Klansmen burned a cross on the lawn of a Lumbee woman in the town of St. Pauls, North Carolina as "a warning" because she was dating a white man. Emboldened, he gave a strong speech denouncing the "loose morals" of Lumbee women and warning that "venereal disease" could be spread to the white population by their noted promiscuity. The Klan then struck at Lumbee men, burning a cross at a tavern frequented by the Lumbee. Cole denounced the Lumbee men as "lazy, drunken and prone to criminal activity." The Klan then burned a cross on the lawn of a Lumbee family who had moved into a white neighborhood as a final warning for the Lumbee to remain in "their" areas.
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Wikipedia