NAACP calls for probe of Mud Creek, area mentioned as lynching site in McCurtain County audio

(Stock image)
(Stock image)

IDABEL, Okla. -- The Oklahoma State Conference National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is calling for the FBI and Department of Justice to investigate the Mud Creek area of McCurtain County.

The request is based on some of the comments made in a recording of county officials allegedly alluding to hanging Black people at this location. NAACP officials are also joining those asking those heard in the recording to resign immediately.

The officials on audio include the McCurtain County sheriff and two county commissioners.

Mud Creek is a stream east of Idabel near the Little River National Wildlife Refuge.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has also asked the county officials to resign. Stitt is also asking the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation to determine whether any illegal conduct has occurred.

"We applaud Governor Stitt for calling for the immediate resignation of the county elected official implicated in the news report and for an OSBI investigation of any actions taken against black residents by them. In the wake of published news reports of the actions of McCurtain County elected official and recorded statements indicate that they have personal knowledge of past civil rights violations and possible criminal violations and cover-ups which they either participated in or failed to report to law enforcement authorities," the NAACP statement reads.

"Clearly, they abused their authority and violated citizen's civil rights. Their words and actions are indicative of Jim Crow era of the lynching African American, burning the bodies of African Americans and police brutality," the statement continues.

The recordings, which were made by a McCurtain County newspaper reporter at the end of a McCurtain County Commissioners Court meeting, have gone viral in recent days. The recordings also include references to killing the reporter and his father.

The Sheriff's Department released a statement late Monday on its Facebook page claiming the recordings were altered and recorded illegally, saying the matter would be investigated.

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