Battle of Hayes Pond (1958)

Sat Jan 18, 1958

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Image: Lumbee men Simon Oxedine and Charlie Warriax, both veterans, with captured KKK flag at VFW convention. Image published in Life Magazine, 1958. Page 26-28. [progressive.org]

On this day in 1958, armed Lumbee Native Americans broke up a KKK rally near Maxton, North Carolina, driving the white supremacists away and confiscating their flag. Four Klansmen were injured in the “Battle of Hayes Pond”.

Grand Dragon James W. “Catfish” Cole was the organizer of the Klan rally. Sanford Locklear, Simeon Oxendine and Neill Lowery were Lumbee leaders who attacked the Klansmen and successfully disrupted the rally.

The year prior, Cole had initiated a campaign of harassment designed to intimidate the Lumbee Tribe to help organize the local Klan. He called a rally on January 18th, and 100 Klansmen arrived at the private field near Hayes Pond which Cole had leased from a sympathetic farmer. Cole managed to erect the cross, but before he could finish the ceremony, over 500 Lumbee men appeared and encircled the assembled Klansmen.

Four Klansmen were injured in the subsequent exchange of gunfire. Cole was later found guilty of inciting a riot and sentenced to two years in prison.