Battle of Hayes Pond

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The Battle of Hayes Pond was an armed conflict between the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and the Lumbee Indians on the night of January 18, 1958, on the sidelines of a Klan rally near Maxton , North Carolina .

background

In the wake of a US Supreme Court ruling in 1954 that led to the desegregation of public schools, the Ku Klux Klan mobilized its supporters and terrorized black people throughout the US south in order to intimidate them not to claim further rights. In South Carolina it was a Klan organization called Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (a predecessor organization of David Duke's later mass organization) under the leadership of the evangelist and radio preacher James W. "Catfish" Cole who organized the resistance.

In 1956 the Lumbee Indians of Robeson Country , North Carolina succeeded in gaining partial state recognition as the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. As a mixed tribe, descending from white Americans, blacks, and Indians, the tribe was a nuisance to the Ku Klux Klan. In particular, Cole, who saw the tribe primarily as a tribe of blacks, was annoyed by the state recognition. In 1957 he began to take action against the tribe. His plan was to unsettle and intimidate the small tribe, who were also marginalized in Indian culture. This should be a first step in founding the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina and thus expanding its catchment area.

On January 13, 1958, the Klan burned a cross in the front yard of a Native American woman who allegedly had an affair with a white man. Further attempts at intimidation should follow.

The real "battle"

On January 18, 1958, Cole confidently held a rally near Maxton, to which he expected about 5,000 Klansmen. In a speech he condemned the racial mixture with harsh words and called the Indians "half nigger" and thus drew the anger of the tribe. During the night, around 50 to 100 Klansmen gathered in a field that a sympathetic farmer made available to them. There they wanted to burn a large cross. A generator supplied a loudspeaker system and a light source with electricity.

Before the cross could be erected, the Lumbee, who had come with about 500 to 1000 men, destroyed the only source of light. They then attacked the frightened clan members with firearms, stones and sticks. Some members of the clan returned fire. Four Klanmen were injured. The rest of them fled and hid in the bushes. Shortly afterwards, the police also reached the scene. However, only one clan member was arrested for being drunk. The police let go of the Lumbee, who seized the abandoned clan symbols and the cross. They burned the insignia and the cross in the center of Maxton.

A banner was later used for photos that were reprinted in Life magazine and showed two Indians posing with their prey.

Effects

Cole later protested the late police intervention. Governor Luther H. Hodges denounced the clan in a press release. Cole was later charged and sentenced to two years in prison for inciting a riot. During his absence, all clan activity in Robeson County came to a standstill. His wife tried to raise money for an appeal during this time, but Cole had to serve the entire sentence. He then continued his right-wing career in the clan-related organizations Helping Hands CB Club and the Committee for Better Government.

None of the Lumbee have been charged or investigated. The Lumbee celebrated their victory over the Klan with an annual festival and named the incident "Battle of Hayes Pond".

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Action Center For Justice: Charlotte Action Center For Justice: The night the Klan met its match. In: Charlotte Action Center For Justice. Retrieved May 4, 2018 .
  2. ^ A b Jefferson Currie II: The Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina and the Battle of Maxton Field. In: North Carolina Museum of History. Archive.org, July 22, 2011, accessed May 4, 2018 .
  3. ^ Liberation Staff: When Native people in North Carolina drove out the Ku Klux Klan -... In: Liberation News . November 27, 2013 ( liberationnews.org [accessed May 4, 2018]).
  4. ↑ Timothy B. Tyson: Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power . Univ of North Carolina Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8078-9901-4 , pp. 137 ( google.de [accessed on May 4, 2018]).
  5. ↑ The Lumbees face the Klan. In: North Carolina Digital History. Archive.org, February 6, 2018, accessed May 4, 2018 .
  6. ^ Time Inc: Bad Medicine for the Klan . In: LIFE . Time Inc, Jan. 27, 1958, p. 26–28 ( google.de [accessed on May 5, 2018]).
  7. ^ Collection Guides at East Carolina University. Retrieved May 4, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Cole case is Slated for the jury Today - Newspapers.com . In: Newspapers.com . ( newspapers.com [accessed May 4, 2018]).