LUMBEE: CIVIL RIGHTS
MOVEMENT
Fair Grove School, located in Robeson County, once an all Indian School before Brown v. Board of Education.
Native Americans and African Americans faced many similar battles during the Civil Rights era. After the Supreme Court Ruling of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), racial tensions proved to be at an all time high as many in the South opposed the ruling of desegregation. Many Indians lost their community schools during desegregation and just like African Americans dealt with long distance busing to school, to fix the prior effects of segregation. The racial tensions during desegregation especially reigned true in Robinson County during the Battle of Hayes Pond.
In Maxton North Carolina, a Ku Klux Klan rally led by James “Catfish” Cole led a campaign against the Lumbee tribe. The Lumbee withstood cross burnings on their front lawns, the Klan ridiculed them as half-breeds, and faced other threats for dating those of opposite races. In 1958, the Klan held a rally with 50 – 100 Klansmen near Hayes Pond in contempt of a native woman for dating a white man. That night, 500 men from the Lumbee tribe came armed to retaliate against the civil injustice imposed by the Klan. In a fearful panic the Klan fled from their rally, with the Lumbee injuring four of Cole’s men. The presentation of the Lumbee’s battle against the Klan by the media proved to be very different toward how newspapers and television presented African American’s victories in similar situations. Natives from the Lumbee tribe became heroes within regional newspapers and national stories in Life Magazine. Reporters presented the Battle of Hayes Pond in a positive light; however, racial stereotypes still prevailed in their narratives. Articles describe those on the Lumbee side as “angry Redskins” and yelling “war-whoops.” Descriptions presented Indians in war like terms, prescribing misconceptions that have existed since European arrival onto the story of the Lumbee. Many in Maxton saw their activism not as an expression of Indian identity, but rather a way to protect their community.
Lumbee activists at the Battle of Hayes Pond