That local framing coexisted with the larger racial politics of the South, but it was not identical to them.

The distinction helps explain why the event carried such strong pride inside the community.

It was not someone else’s movement arriving in Robeson County.

It was the Lumbee acting as the Lumbee.

The Veterans In The Crowd

One element of Lumbee resistance that appears repeatedly in community memory is the presence of veterans.

The mid-twentieth-century Lumbee community included men who had served in the United States military, including during World War II.

Simeon Oxendine, one of the men photographed with the captured Klan banner, was a veteran.

That fact complicates the Klan’s racial fantasy.

The organization tried to portray the Lumbee as outsiders to American civic life while confronting people who had already served in the nation’s armed forces, worked in its economy, voted, raised families, and participated in local institutions.