Battle of Hayes Pond

Battle of Hayes Pond
	Lumbee Indians fighting Ku Klux Klansmen during the Battle of Hayes Pond
Date	January 18, 1958
Location	Near Maxton, North Carolina
Caused by	Ku Klux Klan violence against the Lumbee tribe, cross burnings and racist threats against the Lumbee community.
Resulted in	Strategic Lumbee victory; Klan ceases activity in area
Parties to the civil conflict
Ku Klux Klan	Lumbee Tribe; Anti-Klan locals; KKK defectors
Lead figures
James W. Cole	Sanford Locklear; Simeon Oxendine; Neill Lowery
Number
50–100 Klansmen	500 Lumbee
Casualties
Injuries	4 Klansmen injured in exchange of gunfire; several Lumbee disoriented or injured by tear-gas grenades, none seriously.
Arrested	1 Klansman arrested by police.

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.

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]

There are also two markers; one an engraved rock at the Lumbee tribe federal office, and a highway marker at the intersection of South Patterson Street (34.7223547, -79.3531393) and Maxton Pond Road.

Battle of Hayes Pond Highway marker

The Maxton Pond Road is overgrown (in the part that goes by the pond itself) and the bridge is destroyed.

References

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.
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.
Nicholas Graham, "January 1958: The Lumbees face the Klan", This Month in North Carolina History, January 2005, accessed September 29, 2010.
"Bad Medicine for the Klan", Life, January 27, 1958, accessed September 29, 2010.
Cole Says His Rights Violated", Greensboro Daily News, 20 Jan. 1958: A1.

External links

"The bedsheet brigade", Archives, University of Utah
Guide to the James William Cole Papers, 1863, 1946–1967 (Manuscript Collection #40)
Jacobs, Chick; Venita Jenkins (January 18, 2008). "Showdown at Hayes Pond: The Night The Klan Met Its Match". Fayetteville Observer. Archived from the original on February 14, 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-14.
KKK vs Lumbee Tribe - The Battle of Hayes Pond

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[Jacobs-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.

[Currie-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.

[Graham-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.