People across the country read dramatic accounts in the Raleigh News and Observer, New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, Time, and other newspapers and periodicals describing how the Lumbee Indians, who were relatively unknown outside of southeastern North Carolina, had humiliated the Ku Klux Klan. The “Maxton Riot,” as it came to be called, generated massive local and national media attention. Despite numerous gunshots, there was only one minor injury, and the Lumbees took their spoils, including the KKK banner, to the nearby town of Pembroke to celebrate. Stationed nearby, having feared the possibility of violence, local authorities and the State Highway patrol quickly moved in and restored peace. But before the rally even began, several hundred Lumbees chased the Klansmen from the frozen cornfield. Cole had organized the rally to protest the “mongrelization” of whites and Lumbee Indians in Robeson. A large white banner emblazoned with the letters “KKK” in red hung menacingly nearby. A large white banner emblazoned with a pole and wired a public address system. The armed Klansmen strung up a small light on wired a public address system. On a frigid Saturday night in January 1958, Grand Dragon James “Catfish” Cole and fifty other members of the Ku Klux Klan gathered for a rally in a cornfield near Hayes Pond just outside of Maxton, a small town located in Robeson County in southeastern North Carolina.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |