Estimates vary by source.

Some accounts describe roughly 500.

Others place the number closer to 1,000.

Official North Carolina sources agree on the key point: the Lumbee and other Native people vastly outnumbered the Klan supporters.

The Klan expected to dominate the scene.

Instead, it found itself surrounded.

The Numbers Were The First Reversal

Klan intimidation relies partly on the perception that resistance is dangerous and isolated.

At Hayes Pond, the numbers reversed that perception before the fighting fully began.

The Klansmen were not looking at a few protesters.