Thirteenth Issue: The Battle of Hayes Pond

Hello everyone. My apologies about last week - I didn't have time to do a newsletter. No fear, I am back and with an interesting issue about a Battle! Specifically, the Battle of Hayes Pond. Even though violence is not something I condone, sometimes it is just nice to read about a time when the good guys won and the bad guys lost. There’s no argument that the KKK are the bad guys. Here’s a story about one time they got what they deserved (though not as much as they really deserved, you could argue).

 

 

So Robeson County is in North Carolina. It is ‘majority-minority’ which is a super convoluted and stupid way of saying that most of the people who live there aren’t white. Two thirds are not white, and more than half of that number are American Indian, specifically part of the Lumbee Tribe.

The Lumbee tribe is recognized by the state, and is the largest non-federally recognized tribe east of the Mississippi. Before the Battle of Hayes Pond, another big event in Lumbee history was the Lowry War. The legend of that war may have contributed in some way to the historic battle of Hayes Pond decades later, so I’m going to explain it first before going into the main subject of this newsletter.

North Carolina, like most of the United States, was very affected by the Civil War. Around 42,000 people died. American Indians in North Carolina had differing experiences – some fought in the Confederacy, but some “free people of color” were forced to work on Confederate forts and fled to get away from the ‘enforced labor’. “Free people of color” were seen not just as potential for enforced labor but also dangerous because they were believed to have caused or encouraged slave rebellions.

Henry Berry Lowry was one of twelve kids in his family. He was a free person of color, a Lumbee American Indian. His neighbor James Barnes had always caused trouble for the Lowry family, and finally Lowry killed Barnes when he accused him of stealing food and harboring Union prisoners of war who had escaped.  The Confederates accused the Lowries of crimes like illegally having guns and other such things. Henry got away, so his brother and father were executed in his stead. For the next ten years, Henry raided North Carolina, mostly in Robeson County and mostly targeting upper class white people. He murdered the head of the KKK, John Taylor, and snuck away into the swamps, evading authorities not once or twice and repeatedly over a whole decade. Here's a picture of Henry:

 

 

As the war went on, more and more people fled to the swamps looking for food or fleeing the war. They all banded together under Lowry and raided plantations, giving food to the poor just like Robin Hood. In 1872, Henry Lowry just disappeared, and soon after, the Lowry War was officially over. Lowry was a pretty polarizing figure, as you might imagine. He’s a hero or a criminal depending on who you ask. Newspapers at the time basically accused him and his people of ‘reverse racism’ (which isn’t a thing, obviously), calling him an alternate version of the KKK, saying,  "In portions of North Carolina, band of negro outlaws—real ku-klux—are murdering the people, robbing stores and houses, and openly defying the authorities. Lowry, their leader, is a well-known radical politician. He can be arrested by the Federal officers at any time they please, and yet he is suffered to go at large, and murder white men at his pleasure." It goes without saying that Lowry had nothing to do with the KKK, and he also officially had no political affiliations. Lowry became a legend in Robeson County, and knowing this helps explain the Battle of Hayes Pond.

In the 1950s, there was a guy called Catfish Cole who terrorized people all around North and South Carolina. He worked as a tent evangelist and had a morning radio program. He was Grand Dragon in North and South Carolina, his rallies drawing as many as 15,000 people at a time. After his rallies he’d drive through black neighborhoods to terrorize them, accompanied by the police (who have clearly always been messed up in general).

In Monroe, North Carolina, the KKK targeted Dr. Albert Perry, an African American doctor who was presumed to be financing the local branch of the NAACP. When the NAACP in the area heard about this, they decided to help him out. They organized an armed guard of black WWII veterans who guarded Dr. Perry’s house 24/7. In 1957, Cole held a rally near Monroe and headed to Dr. Perry’s house afterwards, shooting and shouting on the way. The armed guard defended the house against the KKK. The KKK was not prepared for any kind of opposition – they turned and ran away like the cowards they were. Cole decided to leave the area and work on the Lumbee American Indians in Robeson County instead. Here's another picture of this asshole:

 

 

Cole started a campaign against the Lumbee Indians by calling them ‘mongrels’ and saying that they were ‘half-breeds’. He gave a bunch of speeches and even did a cross-burning on the lawn of a Lumbee woman he said was having an affair with a white man. He said Lumbee women had loose morals and Lumbee men were lazy drunken criminals. He also burned a cross on the lawn of a Lumbee family who moved into a white neighborhood.  The Lumbee Indians had been trying to get federal recognition for their tribe for a while by identifying as a bunch of different tribes, but only got limited recognition when they used the “Lumbee” label. Cole thought they were mostly African and that they were trying to pass as Indian and would then eventually try to pass as white. He knew that the Lumbee people were looked down upon even within the Native American community, so he thought they’d be easy targets.

Cole organized a KKK rally on January 18, 1958 where he was going to ‘end race mixing’ and ‘put the Indians in their place’. Local police warned Cole that the Lumbee Indians weren’t going to take any of this well but Cole didn’t care. The other KKK members were worried and only fifty of them showed up. Cole was undeterred. He set up the speaker system and put up a cross, but then over 500 heavily armed Lumbee Indians showed up. They had rocks, sticks, and guns, and surrounded the Klansmen. There was only one lightbulb, which the Lumbee Indians shot out, sending the Klansmen into a panic. There was a little bit of an exchange of gunfire, after which four of them were injured, but the rest of them just ran away, into the swamps. The cowards left the cross, the speaker system, their regalia, and even their family behind. Cole himself reportedly ditched his wife and escaped into a swamp.

 

 

After the KKK all fled, the Lumbee celebrated. World War II vet Simeon Oxendine and Charlie Warriax took pictures with an abandoned KKK banner, and lots of newspapers captured the event with pictures of the celebration afterwards. Eventually the Robeson County police showed up and the Lumbee celebration was cut short with…tear gas (see what I mean about the police being messed up?). Here's some cool pictures of Simeon and Charlie having fun though.

 

 

 

 

Cole was pissed. He called the Lumbee Indians “lawless mongrels” and yelled at the police for not intervening until it was too late. The public was against the KKK, though, and even the North Carolina Governor denounced Cole and the Klan. He was prosecuted and convicted, serving a two year sentence for inciting a riot. The KKK had to cease activities in Robeson County. The Lumbee Indians not only stopped the rally, they got the hateful organization out of their county for good. They celebrate the Battle of Hayes Pond every January 18^th as a holiday. Good for them, I think.

See you next week!