Klan activity was rising in the South after Brown v.

Board of Education.

Cole had already used cross burnings and racial threats.

Local officials feared violence and tried to manage the danger.

Families understood that people could die if the confrontation went wrong.

Hundreds of Lumbee men went anyway.

The Klan discovered that its symbols did not command obedience in a place where the community refused to grant them power.

The light went out.

The rally collapsed.

The banner changed hands.