Growing up, Sunday mornings in my house meant my dad coming home from Saturday night patrol, eating breakfast while recounting the events of the night before to my mom. This morning, January 20, 1980, as I buzzed around the kitchen my Dad talked about the trouble at Black Hat the night before--well actually the early hours of the morning, I knew The Black Hat meant trouble, how much trouble wouldn't become evident for hours, though. The Black Hat was a nightclub on the edge of town. Bars and clubs were rough places in Idabel and I was brought up to believe that no decent person would be seen in either. There were no Cheers bars in McCurtain County, there were only places where fistfights, knifefights and at times gunfights caused my dad problems as he waded into the aftermath. The events that began that fatal night at the Black Hat have remained with me and transformed my understanding of the world. Innocence was lost in the following days. More than 35 years later, I remember the details vividly. The fear and uncertainty remain visceral.
What follows are my memories and how as an adult I have tried to understand this pivotal event in my life. It was the first time that I remember feeling fear and understanding my Dad had a dangerous job. I had heard stories--some of them harrowing--I had seen confiscated weapons, but I was removed. The Idabel Riot of 1980, was something that I lived through, his job touching my life for the first time. I am not a historian and am only telling the story from my point of view. If I am honest, my POV is that of a White, barely teen, daughter of a cop, who grew up in a highly divided area known as Little Dixie.
Here are the facts:
January 19/20: 15 year old African American Henry Johnson was found dead in or near the parking lot of the Black Hat disco.
January 20: a group of approximately 100 marched on the City Hall demanding action
Tensions escalated
January 21, 10:00 PM: a confrontation involve Police, SWAT Teams, and approximately 200 Blacks
January 21: Rueben Farmer, 34, Police Reserved was fatally shot—he was not wearing a Kevlar vest.
January 21-22: schools were closed.
January 22, the body of William Mack, 24 was found in a weedy area, determined a fatality from the previous evening's unrest
Over $100,000 of property was either damaged or destroyed including the burning of the Black Hat
Violence abated but tension remained high throughout 1980
Here is my story:
Sunday morning passed and as evening approached, I got ready to go to the State Theater to work. Chip, my younger brother came with me as both Pop and Mom were working. Usually Pop worked the 11-7 shift, but he was called in early, at the time, I didn't understand why--that innocence would hold for another 3 or 4 hours. My older brother Richard was as work at the Rancho Theater or the radio station--I'm not sure which. Later that evening, Richard
called the State to tell me and Chip to stay at the theater until the shows ended, he would come get us--we were not to walk home. By that time, we had begun to hear that there were problems and the Blacks were marching. The police were holding them off about a block away. Richard came to get us and we drove a block over to get home. Shortly after 11:00, Mom had returned from work at the hospital. Richard and Mom began discussing what to do with the kids--me and Chip. The scanner remained a constant crackle. Word came that State police and other jurisdictions were arriving. Upstairs from my bedroom window, Chip and I peered out at the dancing lights of amassing police cars in the Court House parking lot across the street. At some point Pop dropped by giving an update, grabbing something to eat, and a cup of coffee. Things were not going well. Willy Warhop, I heard, was inciting the violence. Willy Warhop, a name that would continue to echo through the months. A man who I felt spent a life time living up to his name. Later word came that both the KKK and the Black Panthers were on their way to Idabel. It was decided that Chip and I would go to the country the next morning to stay at Aunt Pat's farm. Richard and Mom would stay in Idabel to protect the house if it came to it.
Monday morning. School was cancelled. Chip and I were in the country. Fear hung like fog that day. Word coming in sporadically, conditions continued to
deteriorate. Later, word was that a cop had been killed, but who was unknown. Fear escalated through the roof as I tried to come to grips with the fact it might be my father. Later, I don't know how long--it could have been minutes or hours, it felt like a lifetime--confirmation was that Rueben Farmer had been killed. Rueben who had left the police force to raise his family. Unexpectedly, and after years of trying, Kay had become pregnant. Rueben hung up his badge and bought the gas station down the street from the State Theater. I remember him most from the back seat of the car as we were filling up with gas. Tall, lanky and with a big smile answering questions about the baby girl. Rueben who shouldn't have been there that night, but answered the call of duty that he paid dearly for.
Tuesday, the schools remained closed. Tensions were abating and later that day, Chip and I came home. Pop came home wearing a flak jacket borrowed from the National Guard. He would wear it for a few more days until the kevlar vests on order arrived. Each and every time, and there were many, that I got Pop's shirt and vest ready for an evening of patrol, I remembered Rueben and the riot. I never failed to kiss my dad good-bye as I saw him off to work, because I knew as I had never known before that his job could be a dangerous one. The kiss on the cheek became my talisman to keep him safe.
Why did this happen?
As an adult, I have combed through the internet looking for understanding of what happened. There are no clear answers and the stories that dress the facts vary slightly from one report to the other. August 1984, Joan Biskupic revisited the riot looking for answers: One theory was that in the 1960's there was a migration of the areas African Americans to larger cities--Houston, Chicago, etc. In the 70's as jobs dried up, they returned to Idabel to find that those famous Southern ways remained unchanged creating frustrations and
tensions. The events and immediate aftermath at the Black Hat were seen through the lens of racial bias. Was there racial bias? Idabel is a poor, culturally proud, Southern town that in 1980 24% of the population was African American. When economies go south, racial bias rears its ugly head. The 70's were hard years for the area. Was Idabel any more racial biased than any other Southern town? Probably not. Buskupic writes that Mrs. Ada Jones Johnson, an African American was on the city council at the time of the disturbance said "The people who caused the rioting were not condoned by the black community," she said, adding that unemployment was not an issue of those involved. "People who were qualified found jobs." To me this rings somewhat true. I know my Dad believed that Willy Warhop was to blame for the death and destruction. He believed that Willy was an angry charismatic
man without a moral compass that was able to incite others to violence on his behalf. But as is evidenced by Johnny Lee Clary, the KKK had a foothold and still has one in Idabel: in a Facebook Post Clary states: I was State Leader of the KKK at the time and I along with Imperial Wizard Bill Wilkinson of Denham Springs, Louisiana went there to recruit and bragged we were going to put the Black rioters in their "place." Clary later turned Evangelical Christian and preached against hate groups. In the Facebook post he goes on to say that he understood at the time that Willy Warhop was also the primary instigator. Growing up, I viewed Willy as the boogey man. As an adult, I know that there is no one person, no one cause and eventually that a house divided will fall upon itself just as Idabel did in January 1980.
Note: The photos is this story are culled off the internet and the articles are from The Washington Post, Okla. Town Tense After Night of Rioting, Gunfire, Cause of Violence in Idabel Still Debated from NewsOK written on August 26, 1984 the day before my first Freshman college classes began on Monday the 27th. Other articles include: Idabel Shooting Suspect Refuses to Attend Trial also from NewsOK on November 5, 1982. An UPI Archives article dated on my birthday, October 12, 1980 A Black Man Was Shot to Death and his... The KKK involvement is recounted in this Facebook article by Evangelist Johnny Lee Clary