January 1958 -- The Lumbees face the Klan
On the night of January 13, 1958, crosses were burned on the front lawns of two Lumbee Indian families in Robeson County, N.C. Nobody had to ask who was responsible. The Ku Klux Klan had risen again in North Carolina, its ranks swelling after the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education calling for the desegregation of public schools. While the Court instructed schools to proceed with "all deliberate speed," the Klan fought -- often in the form of anonymous nighttime attacks -- to slow the process of integration.
The rally was scheduled for the night of January 18, 1958, in a field near Maxton, N.C. The stated purpose of the gathering was, in the words of Catfish Cole, "to put the Indians in their place, to end race mixing." The time and location of the rally was not kept secret, and word spread quickly among the local Lumbee population.
Reports vary about the number of people gathered on that cold night, but there were thought to have been around a hundred Klan members. They brought a large banner emblazoned with "KKK" and a portable generator, which powered a public address system and a single bare light bulb. When the meeting began, the arc of the dim light didn't spread far enough for the Klansmen to see that they were surrounded by as many as a thousand Lumbees. Several young tribe members, some of whom were armed, closed on the Klan meeting and tried to take down the light bulb. The groups fought, and a shotgun blast shattered the light. In the sudden darkness, the Lumbees descended upon the field, yelling and firing guns into the air, scattering the overmatched Klansmen. Some left under police protection while others, including Catfish Cole, simply took to the woods.
News photographers already on the scene captured the celebration. Images of triumphant Lumbees holding up the abandoned KKK banner were published in newspapers and magazines throughout the world. Simeon Oxendine, a popular World War II veteran, appeared in Life Magazine, smiling and wrapped in the banner. The rout of the Klan galvanized the Lumbee community. The Ku Klux Klan was active in North Carolina into the 1960s, but they never held another public meeting in Robeson County.
Nicholas Graham
http://www.lib.unc.edu/ncc/ref/nchistory/jan2005/jan05.html
‘It is time for us to tell the world’
Mark Locklear
Staff writer
PEMBROKE — Nell Bullard scanned the crowd of more than 300 people who gathered Friday night to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the night the Lumbees ran the Ku Klux Klan out of Robeson County.
Bullard’s mouth curled and formed a wide smile.
“I am proud,” Bullard said. “I am proud to be a Lumbee Indian.”
Bullard wasn’t at the short-lived KKK rally at Hayes Pond on Jan. 18, 1958. She and other siblings stayed home as their father, Luther Oxendine, armed himself and drove to Maxton in his Model-T Ford.
“We were scared to death,” said Bullard, who lives near Maxton. “We didn’t know what was going on.”
On Friday night, Luther Oxendine was among more than 100 people — men and women, many of whom are dead — whose names pierced the cold night air during a roll call at the Indian Resource Center. Family members stood in their place as leaders of the Lumbee Tribe and the Indian Honor Association presented them medallions commemorating the Battle at Hayes Pond. The medallion included the tribe’s four-color logo, and the words “Lumbee Warrior” and “1958” engraved on the outer circle.
Garth Locklear, association chairman, said the occasion marked the first time many of the participants have spoken publicly about that night. Many feared going to jail, Locklear said.
“This has been the longest and best-kept secret in the history of Robeson County,” said Locklear, who also participated in the routing. “For 50 years we shut down and said nothing. Even your neighbors didn’t know you were there. It is time for us to tell the world.”
Dignitaries and elected officials who attended the event included: District Attorney Johnson Britt; Judge Gary Locklear; Malcolm McLeod Jr., son of Malcolm McLeod, who was the county sheriff in 1958; and Tribal Council members, city and county leaders. Fifty Lumbee children who are members of the tribe’s Boys and Girls Club sang “I’m Proud to be a Lumbee Indian” and the drum group, Southern Sun, performed honor songs.
The event posthumously honored non-Indians who stood with the Lumbees when it wasn’t popular to do so. They included: Sheriff Malcom McLeod; Charles McLean, assistant solicitor; Luther J. Britt, former private prosecutor; Pat Reese, a reporter with the Fayetteville Observer; Shaw, the photographer with the Fayetteville Observer; and Walter Gail, former president of Pembroke State College.
Frank Johnson, a former highway patrolman, was one of the few who is still living. Friday night, a video interview with 85-year-old Maurice Braswell, who was the district solicitor at the time, was shown. He was unable to attend the ceremony.
‘Bullets flying’
The KKK had been active in Robeson County when James “Catfish” Cole, the KKK grand dragon from South Carolina, after hearing about an Indian family who moved into a white neighborhood and an Indian woman who was dating a white man in Robeson County, planned a rally at Hayes Pond near Maxton.
Garth Locklear said the word of the rally spread fast.
“We were angry,” Locklear said. “The Klan is coming to Robeson County to insult Lumbee women ... . They’re coming to insult the most beautiful women in America.”
Lumbee leaders met in a local barbershop to plan a response.
On Jan, 18, only 50 of the 5,000 Klansman whom Cole predicted would show attended the rally. They used a generator to power a sound system and a single light bulb. Cole stood on the bed of a truck and began to speak. It wasn’t long before the Lumbees, many of them armed, swarmed in. Someone shot out the light bulb and the Klansman ducked and ran into the swamps, leaving their cars and belongings behind.
“There were bullets flying everywhere,” Garth Locklear said. “I can assure you I was doing a lot of dancing that night. But God seemed fit that nobody get killed. Nobody went to prison for murder that night.”
It was reported that a few people, including Bill Shaw, a photographer with the Fayetteville Observer, were injured. Shaw was hit in the face with buckshot.
Redell Collins, 17 years old at the time and a native of Rennert, was there with his brother Stedford Collins and the late Dennis Maynor.
“I just bought a double-barreled shotgun,” Collins said. “I didn’t use it, though.”
Collins said he stood and watched the event unfold.
“The fear was there ... fear of not knowing what was going to happen,” Collins said. “But it was over before you knew it. There was a lot of buildup and like a balloon it busted and within a few seconds it was over.”
On display
The sound system, including the microphone that was used that night, was on display Friday. A copy of the Jan. 27, 1958, Life magazine that featured several pictures and an article about the routing was also displayed.
Several people crowded the display and shared stories about where they were that night.
James “Moose” Jones, 69, was a singer in a band in 1958. He went to Hayes Pond with another band member, Willie Oxendine, and his uncle, Elliott Locklear.
“I had no business down there, but I went anyway,” Jones said.
Collins said it was time for the Lumbees to stand up to racism.
“We are talking about it at the barbershop that weekend before and someone said why don’t we just go there and listen to what they have to say,” Collins said.
Collins said he responded by saying: “We don’t want to hear nothing they got to say. We just want them out of the county.
“When you are home and someone comes burning crosses, you’ve got to stand up. The Indians had been pushed enough.”
Cole and one other Klansman, James Martin, were the only two people charged with a crime. Cole served time in prison and died a few years later in a car accident.
When R.D. Locklear heard about the ceremony on Friday, he rescheduled a trip out of town.
“This only happens once,” R.D. Locklear said.
Staff writer
PEMBROKE — Nell Bullard scanned the crowd of more than 300 people who gathered Friday night to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the night the Lumbees ran the Ku Klux Klan out of Robeson County.
Bullard’s mouth curled and formed a wide smile.
“I am proud,” Bullard said. “I am proud to be a Lumbee Indian.”
Bullard wasn’t at the short-lived KKK rally at Hayes Pond on Jan. 18, 1958. She and other siblings stayed home as their father, Luther Oxendine, armed himself and drove to Maxton in his Model-T Ford.
“We were scared to death,” said Bullard, who lives near Maxton. “We didn’t know what was going on.”
On Friday night, Luther Oxendine was among more than 100 people — men and women, many of whom are dead — whose names pierced the cold night air during a roll call at the Indian Resource Center. Family members stood in their place as leaders of the Lumbee Tribe and the Indian Honor Association presented them medallions commemorating the Battle at Hayes Pond. The medallion included the tribe’s four-color logo, and the words “Lumbee Warrior” and “1958” engraved on the outer circle.
Garth Locklear, association chairman, said the occasion marked the first time many of the participants have spoken publicly about that night. Many feared going to jail, Locklear said.
“This has been the longest and best-kept secret in the history of Robeson County,” said Locklear, who also participated in the routing. “For 50 years we shut down and said nothing. Even your neighbors didn’t know you were there. It is time for us to tell the world.”
Dignitaries and elected officials who attended the event included: District Attorney Johnson Britt; Judge Gary Locklear; Malcolm McLeod Jr., son of Malcolm McLeod, who was the county sheriff in 1958; and Tribal Council members, city and county leaders. Fifty Lumbee children who are members of the tribe’s Boys and Girls Club sang “I’m Proud to be a Lumbee Indian” and the drum group, Southern Sun, performed honor songs.
The event posthumously honored non-Indians who stood with the Lumbees when it wasn’t popular to do so. They included: Sheriff Malcom McLeod; Charles McLean, assistant solicitor; Luther J. Britt, former private prosecutor; Pat Reese, a reporter with the Fayetteville Observer; Shaw, the photographer with the Fayetteville Observer; and Walter Gail, former president of Pembroke State College.
Frank Johnson, a former highway patrolman, was one of the few who is still living. Friday night, a video interview with 85-year-old Maurice Braswell, who was the district solicitor at the time, was shown. He was unable to attend the ceremony.
‘Bullets flying’
The KKK had been active in Robeson County when James “Catfish” Cole, the KKK grand dragon from South Carolina, after hearing about an Indian family who moved into a white neighborhood and an Indian woman who was dating a white man in Robeson County, planned a rally at Hayes Pond near Maxton.
Garth Locklear said the word of the rally spread fast.
“We were angry,” Locklear said. “The Klan is coming to Robeson County to insult Lumbee women ... . They’re coming to insult the most beautiful women in America.”
Lumbee leaders met in a local barbershop to plan a response.
On Jan, 18, only 50 of the 5,000 Klansman whom Cole predicted would show attended the rally. They used a generator to power a sound system and a single light bulb. Cole stood on the bed of a truck and began to speak. It wasn’t long before the Lumbees, many of them armed, swarmed in. Someone shot out the light bulb and the Klansman ducked and ran into the swamps, leaving their cars and belongings behind.
“There were bullets flying everywhere,” Garth Locklear said. “I can assure you I was doing a lot of dancing that night. But God seemed fit that nobody get killed. Nobody went to prison for murder that night.”
It was reported that a few people, including Bill Shaw, a photographer with the Fayetteville Observer, were injured. Shaw was hit in the face with buckshot.
Redell Collins, 17 years old at the time and a native of Rennert, was there with his brother Stedford Collins and the late Dennis Maynor.
“I just bought a double-barreled shotgun,” Collins said. “I didn’t use it, though.”
Collins said he stood and watched the event unfold.
“The fear was there ... fear of not knowing what was going to happen,” Collins said. “But it was over before you knew it. There was a lot of buildup and like a balloon it busted and within a few seconds it was over.”
On display
The sound system, including the microphone that was used that night, was on display Friday. A copy of the Jan. 27, 1958, Life magazine that featured several pictures and an article about the routing was also displayed.
Several people crowded the display and shared stories about where they were that night.
James “Moose” Jones, 69, was a singer in a band in 1958. He went to Hayes Pond with another band member, Willie Oxendine, and his uncle, Elliott Locklear.
“I had no business down there, but I went anyway,” Jones said.
Collins said it was time for the Lumbees to stand up to racism.
“We are talking about it at the barbershop that weekend before and someone said why don’t we just go there and listen to what they have to say,” Collins said.
Collins said he responded by saying: “We don’t want to hear nothing they got to say. We just want them out of the county.
“When you are home and someone comes burning crosses, you’ve got to stand up. The Indians had been pushed enough.”
Cole and one other Klansman, James Martin, were the only two people charged with a crime. Cole served time in prison and died a few years later in a car accident.
When R.D. Locklear heard about the ceremony on Friday, he rescheduled a trip out of town.
“This only happens once,” R.D. Locklear said.
http://www.robesonian.com/view/full_story/1654032/article-%E2%80%98It-is-time-for-us-to-tell-the-world%E2%80%99
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