Jim Jones shares his experience surrounding the routing of the KKK at Hayes Pond

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Well, I was in medical school at the time. I was in my second year of medical school at Wake Forest. My cousin, Lonnie Revels, was at Wake Forest, undergraduate. By that time Wake Forest had moved from the town of Wake Forest to Winston Salem. So we were in town together. And we didn't see each other a lot because I didn't have a lot I didn't have a lot of time, being in medical school.
But he called me one day and said, "Are you going home this weekend?"
and I said, "No."
He said, "You gotta go home this weekend."
And I said, "Why do I gotta go home this weekend?"
And he said, "Haven't you head that the Ku Klux Klan are planning a rally?"
...
So finally, after a long argument, he persuaded me to come. Then, as I got here, the town was just swarming like a hive of bees or angry wasps after their nest had been disturbed. And everyone came by and said, "What are you packing?" I said,
"What am I packing?"
"What kind of weapon do you have?"
I said, "Nothing. My fists and my feet, I guess, are about the only--" because we didn't own guns. And he said, ”You gotta have a weapon." So Lonnie, I don't know where he got it from, but Lonnie arranged for me to have some kind of a shotgun, I think it was.
...
So the people who had gathered there started saying all kinds of unkind things to him and asking where the Grand Wizard was. The Grand Wizard was supposed to be part of the gathering.
Eventually there were, obviously, what looked like two sides. There were primarily a group of mostly Lumbees on one side.
I was more naive than brave. I was on the front row with Lonnie And all of the sudden the guy who really fired the first shot, he walked up to gentleman at the back of the car, put what looked like an AK- up to the man's neck and said, "Are you prepared to meet god, you S.O.B.?"
And the guy did not answer. I wouldn't have had an answer if I'd been him. So, he took the gun away from the guy's neck, put it on the light bulb and shot-- the single shot the light bulb.
And then what sounded like, I imagine, a battle would have been in most any kind of encounter, There were a zillion shots and the absolutely amazing thing to me, and I'm a devout Christian so I think that God's hand was in this, no one was killed.
I'm thank-- absolutely amazed because for about-- it was probably just a few minutes or maybe just a few seconds, there was intense gunfire. Guns going off everywhere. And I'm standing on the front row, anxious to see. Dummy me. And all of the sudden my cousin Lonnie jerked me and says, "Get down." So we hid between the fenders of two cars. And a reporter came rushing around the side and said, "I'm with you guys. I'm with you guys. Don't, don't kill me.
...
It just worked out that, during the trial for that-- was a break in medical school so I got to go to part of the trial. Well, the trial was mainly, they were trying the Grand Wizard for inciting a riot. The only really great thing that I think came out of that, as far as I know, the Klan has never again been active in North Carolina.
Of course it clearly exists for years. In Smithville, there used to be a sign as you entered town, "This is Klan country." Symbolically what it meant was the Klan had no power over people.
But the best part of the story, really, for me at any rate, didn't happen there.
So I go back to medical school quiet as I can be. People ask me about the riot down in Pembroke and I said, "Yeah, I heard about it. I guess the Klan got taught a lesson." And that's about all I would say. I'd drop the subject as quick as I could because I really thought I'd be thrown out of medical school if they thought I was rioting.
Finally, about a week or so came by, my cousin Lonnie called me again and he said, "We're in Life Magazine." I said, "You are kidding me." And this was way before I understood that there were various editions to a magazine. And I rushed out and bought a copy of Life Magazine. And, as fortune would have it, the pictures in that issue of Life Magazine stopped with Lonnie. So the picture of this front row, it showed Lonnie's picture but it didn't show my picture. And I thought, "Oh, thank you Lord. I am off the hook, so I'm not going to get kicked out of medical school."
Couple of days later, I had a call from the dean's office. Dr. [Coy Cornelius] Carpenter came down and said, "How are you doin', son?"
At this time, I did not know that I was the first Native American admitted to medical school at Wake Forest.
...
For a little boy who grew up on a tiny little farm at the edge of Pembroke, I've had an amazing life. And I'm just very grateful for that.
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Presented by The Museum of the Southeast American Indian