James William "Catfish" Cole (June 14, 1924 – July 27, 1967) was an American soldier and evangelist who was leader of the Ku Klux Klan of North Carolina and South Carolina, serving as a Grand Dragon. Rise to infamy Cole attended Grainger High School in Kinston, North Carolina, and served in the military during World War II. For a time, he drove a taxicab in Kinston and it was around this time that he acquired the nickname "Catfish". In 1953 he and his wife, Carolyn, began Southern Bible College in Marion, South Carolina. Cole was ordained into the ministry by the Wayside Baptist Church in Summerfield, North Carolina in 1958. While in Marion, he toured North Carolina and South Carolina as a tent evangelist and broadcast a Sunday morning radio program, "The Free Will Hour". During this period he became an active member of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, eventually becoming Grand Dragon in both North Carolina and South Carolina. Cole's rallies drew as many as 15,000. Cole incited violence against blacks, and after his rallies Klan motorcades often drove through black neighborhoods in order to terrorize the inhabitants (accompanied by the police, who maintained that they accompanied the Klan to keep order). Klan defeated by the Black Armed Guard Albert E. Perry, a black doctor in Monroe, North Carolina, was presumed to be financing the local chapter of the NAACP, and consequently he received numerous death threats from the Klan. In 1957, Robert F. Williams, president of the local chapter of the NAACP, was granted a charter from the National Rifle Association to form a local affiliate, which Williams dubbed the "Black Armed Guard". The group was composed mostly of World War II veterans and quickly began organizing for self-defense, guarding Perry's house in shifts. Not making a mention of their race, the group sent a letter to the National Rifle Association asking for a charter, stating that they were a group of veterans who wanted to continue training in case they be called on to serve once again. The charter was granted. Their preparations paid off on October 5, 1957, when Cole held a rally near Monroe. After the rally, a Klan motorcade headed to Perry's house, accompanied by shouting and the firing of weapons at houses along the way. When they reached Perry's house, the defenders returned fire from their fortified positions, and the Klan