Free the Pendleton 2 BBQ: A Panel Discussion on Indiana’s Attica

On February 1st, 1985 guards at the Indiana Reformatory (now Pendleton Correctional Facility) sparked a rebellion with the brutal beating of defenseless inmate Lincoln Love aka Comrade Lokmar Abdul-Wadood. In a successful attempt to save his life, a politicized group of prisoners took several hostages including guards and a politician and occupied a cell block in the Indiana State Prison for 15 hours. According to a lawsuit filed at the time, the prison guards, armed with billy clubs and tear gas, “maliciously held him down and unmercifully stomped and kicked the inmate all over his body and hit the inmate upon and about his upper body and head with nightsticks.” Of course, this beating was no anomaly. Previous iterations of similar brutality had occurred inside the prison. Black inmates were regularly targeted for their political activity. However, this particular vicious incident ended in rebellion. Inmates were rebelling against what we now know was a white supremacist gang of guards called the Sons of Light. IDOC Watch obtained a copy of the deposition of Indiana State Reformatory guard Michael Richardson, given to the defense attorneys prior to the 1987 trial of the leaders of the ‘85 uprising. Richardson attempted to shed light on the existence of the Sons of Light white supremacist guard organization and their practices in his deposition. He had tried to expose the Sons of Light by giving information to the Indiana State Police and the FBI prior to the uprising. Richardson’s testimony during the trial was intentionally curtailed by the prosecution and judge every time he tried to speak on the Sons of Light, which he describes in the deposition as a Ku Klux Klan “splinter group” organized specifically for ISR guards, and the pattern of brutal beatings of Black prisoners at ISR that had provoked the rebellion. Had it not been for the heroic actions of the uprising leaders, especially John “Balagoon” Cole and Christopher “Naeem” Trotter, Lokmar would have beaten to death by the guards, and others on the Maximum Restraint Unit would likely have been brutalized, if not killed, as well. In court proceedings and investigations following the uprising, it was revealed that the cell extraction team that attacked Lokmar had explicit orders to kill him. After confronting guards and attempting to get through to the Captain’s office in order to rescue Lokmar, Balagoon & Naeem were forced to take other guards hostage and take refuge in a cellhouse in order to survive, as all the guards at the prison were now coming after them to kill them. They ended up leading the take-over of J cellhouse, which lasted for approximately 15 hours and ended in negotiations after the State Police, DOC administrators, National Guard, and local & Indianapolis media had gotten involved and come to the prison. The prisoners issued a list of demands during the cellhouse takeover pertaining to the guards’ systematic racism, overcrowding, and lack of recreation. The DOC commissioner was fired as a result of the uprising, and some of the guards involved in the beating of Lokmar were sentenced to federal prison. John “Balagoon” Cole and Christopher “Naeem” Trotter remain in prison to this day, having been sentenced to 88 years and 142 years, respectively, for their leadership of the rebellion. They have served 33 and 20 years in solitary confinement, also respectively, in retaliation and as extra punishment for their leadership of prisoner resistance. At the time of the uprising, they both had less than two years remaining to serve in prison. To learn more and/or get involved, please visit: