Hidden Unities

While driving my friend to his appointment at the excellent VA facility in Salisbury, NC, we took a stop at the North Carolina Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Lexington.  My friend lost the lower half of his left leg on his second deployment to Iraq but manages fairly well for himself.  An older gentleman noticed this and inquired about his service.  After introductions were made, he spoke of his three tours in Vietnam.  He also added he was proud to join the Army because of the “Battle Of Maxton Field” he had been a part of when he was 15.  We had no idea what this was and learned it was a confrontation between the Ku Klux Klan and the Lumbee Indians in 1958. 

Researching this now I further learn the Battle Of Maxton Field was a testament to the arrogance and overkill terrorist groups often fall prey to.  Utterly misreading the attitudes of the local populace, they burned crosses on the front lawns of two Lumbee Indian families as part of an angry condemnation of interracial dating and “coloreds and braves” not knowing their place.

Assembling for a rally, about 50-60 KKK members (mostly from outside Robeson County) got the fright of their life when they realized they were surrounded by nearly a thousand Lumbee Indians armed and pissed.

Nicholas Graham offers the aftermath:

 In the sudden darkness, the Lumbees descended upon the field, yelling and firing guns into the air, scattering the overmatched Klansmen. Some left under police protection while others, including Catfish Cole, simply took to the woods.

News photographers already on the scene captured the celebration. Images of triumphant Lumbees holding up the abandoned KKK banner were published in newspapers and magazines throughout the world. Simeon Oxendine, a popular World War II veteran, appeared on the cover of Life Magazine , smiling and wrapped in the banner. The rout of the Klan galvanized the Lumbee community. The Ku Klux Klan was active in North Carolina into the 1960s, but they never held another public meeting in Robeson County.

A parting note about this glorious moment in NC history is that men like Simeon Oxendine (and Garrison, the gentlemen we met at the memorial) took from their military service a lifelong ethos of honor, courage and leadership.  Combat veterans (In particular) to this day return to and inject these values into their communities through their example and their actions.