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On this day, 18 January 1958, the Battle of Hayes Pond took place near Maxton, North Carolina, when Native Americans routed a rally of the Ku Klux Klan.
The Klan considered the local Lumbee tribe as a “mongrel” race of “half n-words”, were unhappy with interracial relationships occurring with white men, and thought due to their small numbers and marginalised status they would be an easy target. So they began by burning a cross on the lawn of a Lumbee woman who was dating a white man. Their activities escalated and culminated in a rally on 18 January intended at ending “race mixing” once and for all, at which they declared they would have 5,000 attendees.
On the day, they only mustered 50-100 white supremacists, while 500 Lumbee, led by World War II veterans, armed themselves with shotguns, clubs and rocks turned out to oppose them. The Native Americans opened fire and attacked, lightly wounding 4 Klansmen, who returned fire but failed to hit anyone.
The KKK were totally defeated and forced to flee, while the Lumbee took their speaking equipment and burned their Klan outfits and banners on a makeshift bonfire until police arrived and teargassed the revellers. In the wake of the incident, public sentiment swung against the KKK, and the local leader was later convicted for incitement to riot and jailed for two years.
The humiliation ended Klan activity in the local area, and the incident is celebrated each year as a Lumbee holiday.
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