IDABEL — In McCurtain County, some folks are ready to light the torches and grab their pitchforks.
Originally known for its mountain streams, trout fishing and tourism, today McCurtain County is ground zero in a cultural war sparked by an audio recording of four county officials calling for the death of two journalists, bemoaning the fact they can no longer lynch Black residents and making light of a resident who died in a house fire.
The atmosphere, one man said, is tense and getting worse every day.
“It’s a powder keg,” the man – who asked not to be identified because he feared for his safety – said. “It’s not gonna take much to set it off.”
Though two of the officials involved – Larry Hendrix, the jail administrator, and former Commissioner Mark Jennings – have been sidelined, County Sheriff Kevin Clardy and his chief investigator, Alicia Jennings, remain in office.
But the story of the recording and the subsequent fallout from it continue to grow.
Just days after the recording surfaced, the story quickly went global with media outlets around the world publishing stories of the recording.
A short time later Governor Kevin Stitt requested the resignations of Clardy, District 2 Jennings, Manning and Hendrix.
Jennings resigned a short time later. On May 3, Hendrix, the jail administrator, was placed on paid administrative leave by the county’s jail trust. Clardy and Manning remain on their jobs.
In May, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond requested an investigation by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. Later, Drummond amended his request in a letter to Stitt and the OSBI asking that the investigation be expanded.
Those investigations are ongoing; at the same time, several lawsuits have been filed against Clardy’s office alleging wrongful death, and libel and slander.
Today in McCurtain fishing and hunting are no longer the main topic of conversation.
Today, county residents talk of state and federal investigations, letters to the attorney general’s office and whether or not they can fire the county sheriff and his staff.
Last week those residents spoke up.
“I know there is hate but for it to appear openly makes me worried about my grandkids. This stuff is getting unreal because stuff is beginning to happen in the community,” Glenda Austin, a resident of the area, said. “We’re not safe. That’s the bottom line. We’re not safe.”
Austin and several residents spoke at the May 8 meeting of the McCurtain County Board of Commissioners. They told the commission they no longer trusted Kevin Clardy, the county sheriff, or his staff. They told the commission they didn’t feel save in their homes.
They told the commission they wanted change.
Jim Green, a resident of Broken Bow, said both county and state officials need to be much more transparent.
“I read (McCurtain Gazette publisher) Bruce Willingham’s article about Matlock, the DA and how for five years he visited with county commission and our state government. I’m here to tell you the state of Oklahoma has a transparency problem,” he said. “We’re not stepchildren down here in McCurtain County. We have to have a lot higher expectations than we’re receiving.”
County residents don’t want the sheriff just to be removed and everything washed away, he said. “We want to know what happens so we can solve problems.”
Jimmy Williams, a pastor from Idabel, said county residents were frustrated and wanted to return to a time without the controversy. Williams urged members of the commission to correct the problem by removing Clardy and his staff the county can move forward.
“We need to draw a line somewhere that this kind of thing will stop,” he said. “We live here together. We stay here together and we work here together. We are asking that things be set right. We are no going forward until this situation -- I’m asking this morning that you sit wrong right.”
Willie Watson, a longtime Idabel resident, told the commission they needed to act quickly to resolve the situation.
“You know right from wrong,” he said. “If you make a vote depending on what everyone else did you have no backbone. In my opinion you are a coward. If you’re not leading you need to go.”
Members of the commission should ask themselves if they are leading the county, he said. “If you don’t have the best candidate sitting in that seat, that knows their job that knows what to do then the system has failed.
The county needs leaders to stand up, he said.
“You haven’t done it. You haven’t stood up. Some of you just care about your seats,” Williams said.
In addition to public meetings, area residents continue to protest. Since mid-April groups of protestors have stood outside the commissioner’s office and along the main highways into the county with signs calling for change.
The protests, while peaceful, have pointed and direct.
Derek Van Voast, a special assistant to the Rev. Jessie Jackson Sr., was part of one protest outside of the sheriff’s office. During the protest Van Voast placed a hangman’s noose on a sheriff’s department vehicle.
“The noose is symbolic,” Van Voast said. “African Americans may not see the noose every day, but they dang sure live under the noose every day. Get it right. Get it right Idabel. Do the right thing.”
The protests, organizers said, will continue as long as Clardy and Manning remain in office. Clardy and Manning, one protestor said, no longer have the moral authority to serve as law enforcement officials.
“You can’t be a racist and claim to uphold the law,” the protestor said. “It doesn’t work that way. You can’t be filled with hate.”
Not far away, one woman sat quietly with a homemade sign of white posterboard with black lettering. Behind her, dozens of cars and protestors lined the highway.
“End racism in the MCSO,” her sign read.