Robeson County Was Not Like The Story The Klan Told About It

Robeson County in the 1950s had a distinctive racial and political landscape.

White residents, Black residents, and Lumbee people all lived in the county in large numbers.

North Carolina historical sources describe a triracial social order in which each group had its own institutions and, under segregation, separate schools.

That structure did not make the county equal.

Jim Crow shaped daily life.

State law and local custom enforced racial boundaries.

Black residents faced the violent structure of white supremacy familiar across the South.

Native people also faced discrimination, classification battles, unequal public services, and repeated efforts by outsiders to define who they were.

The Lumbee were not a tiny, isolated community.