Battle of Hayes Pond

The Battle of Hayes Pond or Maxton Riot was an armed confrontation between members of the Ku Klux Klan and the Lumbee Native Americans 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.

Battle of Hayes Pond
Lumbee Indians fighting Ku Klux Klansmen during the Battle of Hayes Pond
DateJanuary 18, 1958
Location
Near Maxton, North Carolina
Caused byKu Klux Klan violence against the Lumbee tribe, culminating in cross burnings and racist threats against the Lumbee community.
Resulted inKu Klux Klan ceases activity in area
Parties to the civil conflict
Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina
Anti-Ku Klux Klan locals
Lead figures
James W. Cole Sanford Locklear
Simeon Oxendine
Neill Lowery
Number
50–100 Klansmen
500 Lumbee
Casualties
Injuries4 Klansmen injured in exchange of gunfire; several Lumbee disoriented or injured by tear-gas grenades, none seriously.
Arrested1 Klansman arrested by police.

Events leading up to the confrontation

In reaction to the US Supreme Court ruling in 1954 ending official public school segregation, the revived Ku Klux Klan (KKK) undertook a campaign of terrorist actions throughout the American South designed to intimidate black people and discourage them from demanding greater civil rights.[1] Cole led the South Carolina-based Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

Cole targets the Lumbee

In 1957, Cole began a campaign of harassment designed to intimidate the Lumbee Tribe.[2] He hoped to use his campaign against the Lumbee to build up the Klan organization in North Carolina.[1]

Klan violence escalates

Believing that he had the Lumbee on the run, Cole announced plans for a Klan rally on January 18, 1958, near the small town of Maxton, intended "to put the Indians in their place, to end race mixing".[3]

Battle
Robeson County Klansmen in robes with burning cross, c. January 1958
Lumbee Indians confronting Klansmen

On the night of the rally, 50–100 Klansmen arrived at the private field near Hayes Pond which Cole had leased from a sympathetic farmer. Cole set up the public address system and erected the cross, all under the illumination of a single light bulb. Before Cole could finish the arrangements, over 500 Lumbee men, many armed with rocks, sticks and firearms, appeared and encircled the assembled Klansmen.[2]

Afterward, the Lumbee celebrated by holding up the abandoned KKK banner; Charlie Warriax and World War II veteran Simeon Oxendine were shown wrapped in it in Life magazine photos.[4]

Aftermath
Hayes Pond in 2019

In the days after the confrontation, a defiant Cole called the Lumbee "lawless mongrels" and denounced local law enforcement for failing to intervene earlier in the confrontation.[5] Public opinion, however, turned against Cole. North Carolina Governor Luther H. Hodges denounced the Klan in a press statement, and Cole was later convicted for inciting a riot and given a two-year sentence.[2]

References
  1. Chick Jacobs and Venita Jenkins, "The Night the Klan Met Its Match", Fayetteville Observer, January 18, 2008, reprinted on Action Center for Justice, accessed September 29, 2010.
  2. Jefferson Currie II, "The Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina and the Battle of Maxton Field" Archived July 22, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Tar Heel Junior Historian 44:1 (Fall 2004), North Carolina Museum of History, accessed September 29, 2010.
  3. Nicholas Graham, "January 1958: The Lumbees face the Klan", This Month in North Carolina History, January 2005, accessed September 29, 2010.
  4. "Bad Medicine for the Klan", Life, January 27, 1958, accessed September 29, 2010.
  5. Cole Says His Rights Violated", Greensboro Daily News, 20 Jan. 1958: A1.

Further reading
  • "Raid by 500 Lumbee balks North Carolina Klan rally", The New York Times, January 19, 1958, p. 1.
  • "Indictment of Kluxers to be Urged". The Morning Herald. Hagerstown, Maryland. 20 Jan 1958. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Cole Says His Rights Violated", Greensboro Daily News, 20 Jan. 1958: A1.
  • "The Lumbees Ride Again", Greensboro Daily News, 20 Jan. 1958: 4A.
  • Morrison, Julian. "Sheriff Seeks Klan Leader's Indictment: Cole Accused of Inciting Riot Involving Indians and Ku Klux", Greensboro Daily News, 20 Jan. 1958: A1-3.
  • "Cole faces indictment; disgusted . . . quits", Robesonian, 21 Jan. 1958: 1.
  • Ryan, Ethel. "Indians who crushed rally were mature tribesmen", Greensboro Record 21 Jan. 1958: A1.
  • "Judge deplores Klan entry into peaceful Indian land", Robesonian 22 Jan. 1958: 1.
  • "Redskins whoop Lumbee victory." Robesonian 23 Jan. 1958: 1.
  • Brown, Dick. "The Indians who routed the 'Catfish'." News and Observer 26 Jan. 1958: Sec. 3 p. 1.
  • "North Carolina: Indian raid", Newsweek 51 (27 Jan. 1958): 27.
  • "Bad medicine for the Klan: North Carolina Indians break up Kluxers' anti-Indian meeting", Life 44 (27 Jan. 1958): 26–28.
  • "When Carolina Indians went on the warpath–", U. S. News and World Report 44 (31 Jan. 1958): 14.
  • "Indians back at peace and the Klan at bay." Life 44 (3 Feb. 1958): 36–36A.
  • "Cole Case is Slated for the Jury Today". The Daily Times-News. Burlington, North Carolina. 13 Mar 1958. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Klan Wizard Cole gets 2-year sentence; Titan Martin draws 12 months. Both free on bond; both file appeal", Robesonian 14 March 1958: 1.
  • "Heap bad Kluxers armed with gun, Indian angry paleface run", Ebony, 13 (April 1958): 25–26, 28.
  • Craven, Charles. "The Robeson County Indian uprising against the Ku Klux Klan", South Atlantic Quarterly 57 (Autumn 1958): 433–42.
  • Henderson, Bruce. "Robeson civic leader dies at 69: Simeon Oxendine won fame confronting Klan", Charlotte Observer 28 Dec. 1988: 1B.
  • Tyson, Timothy B. Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams & the Roots of Black Power, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
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