KKK vs Lumbee Tribe - The Battle of Hayes Pond

thank you for tuning in to another episode of in range you see probably the most simplistic firearm one could ever consider a firearm by modern standards right here on the table in front of me this is a 12-gauge single-shot break open shotgun and the reality is many weapons like this which are really ostensibly just hunting rifles or hunting shotguns were pressed into service in the interest of civil rights movements and human rights and it is the most simple firearm like this that talks to some of the most complex stories in American history and it's a sad thing that that's the reality and it's also an interesting note to me that when you look at so much firearms related content whether it's books magazines or videos how few if any of them discuss the reality of the place of the firearm within the civil rights movement or human rights in general it's always about the gear the technology or some battle but very rarely is it about the place and a purpose that they took or for good or for bad within the social structure of it so let's go ahead and start off with the premise of how we landed up at the Battle of Hayes pond in the 1950s a man rises to prominence in North Carolina named James catfish Cole he's an ordained Baptist minister and a tenth evangelist tenth evangelist if you're not familiar with them sort of the precursor to what we see today as TV evangelists they would wander around the country set up a tent to have a week-long or weekend long hell fire and brimstone type sermon that would draw very large numbers he also hosted a Sunday radio show called the freewill hour but on top of all that he was the Grand Dragon of the North Carolina South Carolina Klu Klux Klan previous to the battle at Hayes pond James catfish Cole had already been routed in an attempt to terrorize the community and Robbie Williams and a number of n-double-a-cp members and the black an array actually fended him off that's a topic for another day but he realized that he couldn't have the fight where he wanted to have it so he turned his ire towards the Lumbee nation or the Lumbee Indians and in 1957 he starts his campaign with this quote in an effort to start to instigate their terror campaign against the Lumbee he has a cross burning in st. Paul North Carolina near the home of a Lumbee woman that he accused of having an affair with a white man and therefore racially mixing well the Lumbee hear about this and of course they know about it beforehand because he announces it via posters and flyers that over 5000 Klansmen are going to join up at Hayes pond to terrorize the Lumbee and push them out of our community that said the Lumbee had a number of World War two veterans amongst them and a lot of them and I can't mention them all but I'm gonna mention three names in particular that are prominent during this particular event Simone oxygen Neal Lowery and Sanford Loxley R Simone was a World War 2 b-17 engineer veteran with over 30 missions under his belt and when he heard about this Klan rally coming his community was a direct quote from him in which he said he said that did he well we'll just have to wait and see well January 18 1958 comes and the clans gonna have their rally near Maxton at the pond to put the Lumbee in their place now previous to this the local law enforcement warned the Klan that this was probably not the best idea because they understood that the Lumbee were not going to allow them to do this and they thought that it was they were warning them for their own safety well as a result 5,000 didn't show up but 50 did many of them with their wives and children in cars with them and James catfish Cole sets up the podium sets of Adak audio equipment has a single light there for illumination near the pond they set up a cross as well of course the normal Klan cross burning which was going to be the culmination of their bigoted orgy and as the rally starts a significant number hundreds of Lumbee surround the Klan most of them armed if not with guns at least with rocks but many what firearms are present shotguns and rifles alike they realize that they're greatly outnumbered and the Lumbee start to surround them Neal Lowery walks right up to them and where the light is hanging for their illumination neither breaks the light what the butt of his rifle or shoots it out most accounts say that he fires the gun and destroys the light at which point a number of the Lumbee fire their weapons into the air and it terrorized the Klansmen the Klansmen realized they are not too outnumbered significantly outgunned some of the Klansmen attempt to return fire and panic while trying to flee they don't hit anyone four of the Klansmen are wounded in this but no one's killed the Klansmen flee what such disarray are routed in such a way that they leave their women and children behind in fact James catfish Cole's wife and child ran to their car and started the car in an attempt to get away from this obvious route landed up ditching the car in a ditch and got stuck and they actually help James catfish Cole's wife and child by pushing the car out of the ditch to help her get home with that said this was an incredible achievement the Lumbee celebrate they go out back to the field where this cross was there to be burned to terrorize them lots of Klan paraphernalia laying like dendrite us on the field they find a Klan flag with the prominent KKK on it posed with it wrapping it laughing at their victory over the Klan and the reality is James catfish Cole was ultimately the only one really indicted for anything about this and was sentenced for inciting a riot he served a year for this of course later was let out and continued to be the Klansmen he always intended to be but what did happen is the Lumbee proved that they were not going to be terrified or oppressed by the Klan and as a result the Klan never again had any form of protester rally in their K in their city in their County or in their nation on this note I want to say that this is going to be the first of many in the series and the reality is this type of history is completely left out of the books in fact unless you're very specifically looking for it you'll never find out about it these people are Americans and they were fighting for their lives and their rights and their homes against people that were there to destroy them or kill them or worse and the reality is that when we label it as black history it is somehow different and separate from that of the history of James catfish Cole which would be then American history this makes no sense to me this is all American history and our struggle for civil rights and the struggle for what we are supposed to be is ongoing to this day I think it's a it's a outrage that the issue of firearms in the Civil Rights Movement and firearms as a human rights tool in general I left out of the discussion among so much of the gun rights community I have to wonder why that is and many of the firearms law that we have on the books today are there as vindictive laws against people of color but we're gonna cover a lot more of that here at enrage TV and the only reason we're able to cover these type of topics here at in reims TV is because we're not monetized by anyone we have no sponsors no overlords and we're not advertiser friendly to YouTube in fact I proactively de monetize the channel supported only by you the viewer via patreon if you want to see this kind of content get out to the world because this is the stuff that should be discussed in firearms culture I thank you for already being a patreon supporter and enabling me to do that if you want to see more of that and you can please consider supporting us on patreon if you can't I do understand just subscribe to one of my multiple channels or grab greatly distributed not just on YouTube you can find us all at in range TV thank you and share with your friends

Channel: InRangeTV

Views: 305,481

Rating: 4.9002929 out of 5

Keywords: hayes pond, battle of hayes pond, maxton, maxton riot, lumbee, kkk, klu klux klan, james catfish cole, lumbee nation, civil rights, inrange, inrangetv

Id: MfdJWw4mKbg

Length: 7min 35sec (455 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 25 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Cozret]

Hi Everyone,

This thread has been up for a while, but it is still drawing in views, so let's place a reminder here.

Do not engage racist with comments that break rule 1, "Keep it Civil." Instead, press the Report button so we can ban them.

This helps us stop toxic elements from continuing to pollute the subreddit, and keeps us from having to issue temp bans to non-racists because they broke rule 1.

Thanks much!

[u/Matthew1J]

In range TV is a youtube channel focused on firearms. They also have something like a series where firearms play role, but the main focus is history.
In this short video (7:35) you can see a story from 1958 when KKK planned to terrorize native tribe and push them away, but failed miserably. The KKK were routed and despite presence of many weapons and some shots fired nobody was killed. This was the last KKK rally in that area.
I've never heard of a story like this and it seems really interesting, though it might be just because I'm not American.

[u/EAsucks4324]

Inrange is a fantastic channel for everything firearms but also some very interesting old west history

[u/treysplayroom]

Every tribe in the USA is unique, but the Lumbee have a truly unusual history. This incident here should be viewed in the unusual context of their federal recognition at the very height of the so-called "termination Era," when Congress was deliberately severing their sovereign relationship with certain tribes.

Instead of destroying the Lumbee, Congress decided that yeah, they exist but they can't be treated like other tribes. Which really screwed them over.

But, on the other hand, they had territory on which North Carolina law enforcement theoretically could not follow, or if they did it offered the Lumbee a chance to overturn their disadvantageous political situation in the courts.

So, you see, circumstances kind of naturally lent themselves to a raiding strategy, if the Lumbee were to perceive themselves as threatened. Go out, whip some ass, run back to home base, now you can't touch me. The Lumbee were using the one advantage they had--sovereign immunity--to confound their enemies.

​

Edit: Let's get something out of the way right now: when it comes to whether a tribe (not individuals with their IHS cards and CDIBs) is "Indian," the US federal government doesn't really have a racial component to what it means to be an Indian. Are you descended from known tribal members? Did your tribe have its own political leaders and maintain records? Do you define yourselves as Indians? Those sorts of questions. It doesn't matter what they look like or what music they listen to today; it doesn't matter that they were conquered. What matters is did they act like a tribe throughout history. So we can skip absolutely all of the racial talk in this question, as the federal government does, yes?

[u/TrickMichaels]

My favorite podcast, The Dollop has an episode on this! Would highly recommend. Dave and Gareth are hilarious and they point out all sorts of wild bits of history.

[u/erknen]

I love it when a racists plan falls apart.

[u/WhiskeyDickens]

I want to be friends with Karl and Ian

Karl and Ian if you are reading this, let me know I am totally chill and not going to cut a lock of Ian's hair and eat it

[u/AlabasterNutSack]

A prolific song writer of the day, Malvina Reynolds, wrote a song about this very incident. Here’s Pete Seeger performing that song fresh from being written at Carnegie Hall!

https://youtu.be/1IXvwIIorBM

[u/_shakejones]

Adopted into a Lumbee family. Grew up near where this actually took place, they call the area "Strike at the Wind" for a play that takes place there. Loved my tribe even though 60 percent of them didn't really fuck with me because I'm white, but I personally accept the reasons.

Good times.

Edit: punctuation, grammar, and revised