The day the Klan messed with the wrong people

[Nuclear Unicorn]

Saw this in GD --

From Daily Kos: "The day the Klan messed with the wrong people."

You saw those cars coming, and you knew who those men were. They wanted you to see them. They wanted you to be afraid of them."
- Lillie McKoy, former mayor of Maxton talking about the KKK

By the mid-1950's the Civil Rights Movement was gaining momentum and the KKK decided they had to fight back. Their campaign of terrorism swept through many of the southern states, but largely fell flat in North Carolina.

James W. "Catfish" Cole, the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in South Carolina, decided he was going to change that. Cole was an ordained minister of the Wayside Baptist Church in Summerfield, North Carolina, who regularly preached the Word of God on the radio. His rallies often drew as many as 15,000 people. As Cole told the newspapers: "There's about 30,000 half-breeds up in Robeson County and we are going to have some cross burnings and scare them up."

Cole made a critical mistake that couldn't be avoided by a racist mind - he was completely ignorant of the people he was about to mess with.
.


Dr. Perry was a black doctor in Monroe, NC, and helped finance a local chapter of the NAACP. One night at a meeting, the word was received that the Klan threatened to blow up Dr. Perry's house. The meeting broke up and everyone went home to get their guns.

Sipping coffee in Perry's garage with shotguns across their laps, the men agreed that defending their families was too important to do in haphazard fashion. "We started to really getting organized and setting up, digging foxholes and started getting up ammunition and training guys," Williams recalled. "In fact, we had started building our own rifle range, and we got our own M-1's and got our own Mausers and German semi-automatic rifles, and steel helmets. We had everything."


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/01/17/826081/-The-day-the-Klan-messed-with-the-wrong-people?detail=email

The OP's personal comment --

Now this is what I call a 2nd Amendment remedy!

[kimbutgar]

1. I hope a movie is made of this

With the re-emergence of the teakkkrethug party you know they are descendants of these cretins in South Carolina. I would bet if you interviewed many virulent tea party types they have white hoods in their family closets.

[underpants]

2. +

[Neon Gods]

3. Good read

The full post at DailyKos is a good read. There is a story about the Lumbee Indians who fought the Klan with the same results. In the Comments section, member Juancito posts the lyrics of a song that was written about the victory. Here's part of it (not sure how much copywrite laws allow):


IBATTLE OF MAXTON FIELD
words and music by Malvina Reynolds
© 1958 by Schroder Music Co.

Now brave the Klansmen rallied there In Maxton town that night.
All armed with knives and pistol guns and honin' for a fight.
Oh, rally round, you Klansmen bold, but do not show your face.
We'll burn the fiery cross tonight and save the Nordic race.

Chorus:
Oh, the Klan, Oh the Klan
It calls on ev'ry red blood fighting man
Who is free and white and bigot, gets his courage from a spigot,
And protects his racial purity the very best he can.

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

The heroes left their stores and plows, their pool-halls and their bars,
And in their gallant hooded shirts, they drove up in their cars.
For in this grave emergency that mustered every soul,
Who should appear to lead the fight but Wizard Jimmy Kole.
....
======

Great song. Read the rest in the comments to the post.

[hack89]

4. Impossible. Nothing good can come from killing machines!

nothing!

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

5. Had I been there, I could have changed...

...their misguided minds and hearts,
And made a fortune selling cans of veggies that make you fart.
Guns are evil and guns are bad and also terribly rude,
Touching, handling, toting and loading will make your mind so skewed.