Friday, January 18, 2008

50 Years Ago Today: The Battle of Hayes Pond

From Wikipedia:

During the 1950s, the Ku Klux Klan waged a campaign of terror throughout the American South. In 1957, Klan Wizard James W. "Catfish" Cole of South Carolina began a campaign of harassment against his neighbors to the north, the Lumbee Indians of Robeson County, North Carolina. Declaring the Lumbee to be "mongrels," Cole told newspapers: "There's about 30,000 half-breeds up in Robeson County and we are going to have some cross burnings and scare them up."

The new year began with a wave of Klan terror. On January 13, 1958, a group of Klansmen burned a cross on the lawn of a Lumbee woman in the town of St. Pauls, North Carolina as "a warning" because she was "having an affair" with a White American man. The Klan held still more cross burnings while Cole traveled throughout the county speaking out against the "mongrelization" of the races.

Pleased with the Klan's campaign of terror directed against the Lumbees, Cole planned a massive Klan rally to be held on January 18, 1958, near the small town of Maxton, North Carolina. Cole predicted that 5,000 rallying Klansmen would remind the Lumbees of "their place." Cole hoped that his efforts at cowing the Lumbee into submission would consolidate his control over the Klan in the Carolinas.

On the night of the battle, only 50 Klansmen out of the planned 5,000 arrived at the designated rally point. However, before Cole could begin the rally, over 500 well armed Lumbee suddenly appeared, fanned out across the highway and encircled the assembled Klansmen. The Lumbee began making whooping noises and then opened fire on the Klansmen. Four Klansmen were wounded in the first volley fired by the Lumbee, but none were seriously injured. The remaining Klansmen however panicked and fled the scene, leaving their public address system, unlit cross, and various Klan regalia behind. James W. "Catfish" Cole reportedly escaped through a nearby swamp.

The Lumbee Indians fearlessly faced a dastardly foe. Like most bullies when confronted, the Ku Klux Klan fled without a fight.

Fifty years later, we face a similar enemy. An enemy who uses violence, fear and intimidation to achieve an inhumane agenda of superiority, intolerance, and bloodlust. But the foe we face today is not one of racial hatred, it is one of religious dominance, fueled by a belief system that cheapens all life to little more than a possession to be exploited or destroyed on a whim.

Unless we, in the West, learn a lesson from our Native American friends and take a strong stand against these Mohammedan bullies, it will only be a matter of time before we have to listen to Arabic prayer calls from minarets or conform our lifestyles to comply with the Sharia. It is not too late. But at this rate, we are quickly approaching a point of no return.

Allahu Achbar.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Great article. I'm a lumbee Indian living in Raleigh,NC. My late uncle was one of those Indians there that night. And you're right. It's time to make a stand again.