Tribe recalls rout of KKK

MAXTON — Nearly 100 Lumbee tribal members ignored the cold on Monday to honor the bravery of those who took on the Ku Klux Klan during a rally near Hayes Pond 58 years earlier to the day.

“This is a part of who we are,” Tribal Chairman Harvey Godwin Jr. said during a ceremony at Hayes Pond, near Maxton. “We drove the KKK out of Robeson County and they haven’t came back since. We need to use that energy to fight our battles today, but without the weapons.”

Godwin told the crowd that they were “standing on hallowed ground,” where on Jan. 18, 1958, several hundred Lumbee,many of them armed, met after word spread that Grand Dragon James “Catfish” Cole had organized a KKK rally near Hayes Pond.

http://redspringscitizen.com/news/3507/tribe-recalls-rout-of-kkk