Poked with knives, menaced with guns, [Robert] Hayling and his three companions stood miserably at the center [of a circle of Klansmen]. When one of them claimed to have gotten lost on a fishing trip, the crowd hooted at transparent panic. ... The Klansmen circled and swaggered, but eventually their threatening gestures lapsed into empty, self-conscious inhibition against attacking helpless people, Negroes or not. A lull of surreal confusion set in until women of the Klan prodded the hesitant enforcers with graphic shrieks of encouragement. Uncertainly at first, men darted in to tear away pieces of shirt, then struck with fists, chains, and assorted clubs. Sight of blood turned theater to reality for the horrified Congregationalist minister, who repressed urges to intervene for fear that the slightest betrayal of sympathy would draw hostility upon himself. He worked his way slowly to the rear, he reported, "then sauntered casually towards my automobile ... kicking aimlessly in the sand as I walked along."

A shotgun blast from an overexcited Klansman briefly scattered the attackers, diverting them long enough that sheriff's deputies came upon the Negroes alive in a heap. Abrasions, concussions, and broken teeth sent all four to the hospital, but authorities interpreted events steadily against the victims.

Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-64By Taylor BranchPage 142