Re: Robert F. Williams, the Lumbee Indians and the KKK

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I received this from long-time activist Ken Lawrence today and thought
others might appreciate it:

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Malvina Reynolds wrote a ballad, "The Battle of Maxton Field" (recorded
by Pete Seeger), about the defeat of the Klan by the Lumbee Indians in 1958,
with clever lyrics:

Oh have you seen the bedsheet boys, the terrors of the night?
They rallied here at Maxton, a-honin' for a fight.
So rally round you Klansmen bold, but do not show your face,
We'll burn a fiery cross tonight, and save the Nordic race.

The Indians, the Indians, they are our natural foe.
They lure our girls with coke and pie, they take them to the show.
They wear blue jeans and leather coats, but anyone can see,
They are not real Americans, the likes of you and me.

Chorus:
Oh the Klan, Oh the Klan.
It calls on ev'ry red-blood fighting man.
If you are free and white and bigot
get your courage from a spigot.
We'll be needing reinforcements to fight the In-dy-ans.

. . . .

The headlights shone, the Klansmen stood in a circle brave and fine,
When suddenly a whoop was heard that curdled ev'ry spine.
An Indian youth with steely eyes sauntered in alone,
He calmly pulled his shooting iron and conked the microphone.

Another shot, the lights went out, there was a moment's hush.
Then a hundred thousand Lumbee boys came screamin' from the brush.
Well maybe not a million, quite, but surely more than four.
The Klansmen shook from head to foot and headed for the door.

[initial couplet forgotten]
Our histories will long record this perilous advance,
when many a Klansman left the field with buckshot in his pants.

. . . .

T'was Reedsville's Jimmy Martin there, a sadder wiser man.
He saw the Pembroke Indians throw buckshot at the Klan.
He sauntered home that greenish morn to greet his loving wife.
She beaned him with her rolling pin for losing her kitchen knife.

Ken


Louis Proyect
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