The Battle of Maxton Field
In 1958, in North Carolina, it was the Klan against the Native Americans (the Lumbee tribe, to be exact) and the Klan came out second best by a huge margin. They made Life Magazine, in fact. One of the pics in Life was a pair of Lumbee wrapped in the KKK banner. One wore a VFW cap. He was a flight engineer on a bomber in WWII. Clearly, the Klan was outmatched and outmaneuvered.
It inspired a folk song, and my girlfriend in 1965 recorded it in a hole in the wall studio we rented to make a demo tape. We cut a number of tracks, and the tape has not weathered the passage of time too well (nor was it a real good recording to start with). She flubs a word in the song, but we never got back to fixing it… too bad.
Her parents immigrated from Lebanon; they were the salt of the earth, and a stellar example of why we should not discriminate against the traveller. The guy on Ellis Island who processed them could not spell Jacquies parents surname, so he made it “Dicie” and they carried it proudly thereafter.
Anyway, it seems really appropriate to put it out there today. Soon I will post some others, especially “Birmingham Sunday”.
For now, enjoy Jacqueline Dicie (Habeeya).
p.s. This is on my own server, so Facebook can’t interfere… you might have to download the MP3 to hear it.