Kristen Cates

GreatFalls

John Abarr is ready to put his words into action to show that the former KKK leader is a reformed man who wants to honor and celebrate all minorities.

It’s why he’s working with the NAACP, LGBTQ supporters and members of the local black community to host a Martin Luther King Day celebration Jan. 16.

“I think (King) fought for justice,” Abarr said. “He wasn’t a perfect person, but overall, he was a good man.”

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The celebration will be held at First United Methodist Church at 10 a.m. and will feature regional NAACP chapter president Jimmy Simmons from Casper, Wyo.; the Rev. Micah Hartung, formerly of the Metropolitan Community Church; along with the 14th Street Quartet and the Great Falls Community Gospel Choir.

But after spending a lifetime admittedly espousing white supremacist views and recruiting for the KKK, there is some hesitation in believing Abarr’s heart has changed.

Pastor Nancy Slabaugh Hart of First UMC said she wasn’t quite sure what to think when Abarr approached her about hosting the event. His children are part of the youth group and it was the church his ex-wife, now deceased, belonged to for a number of years.

“He said he’s doing this for the kids. I was really nervous about hosting this,” she said. “But there does seem to be some kind of change in him.”

Abarr said after spending a lifetime raised by a father who espoused racist views and carrying those views himself, his heart has been slowly changing over the last few years. It started with his meeting with Simmons in Casper in August 2013 to talk about hate crimes being committed against black people in Campbell County, Wyo., and the Klan spreading fliers denouncing black men dating white women.

Simmons, knowing Abarr’s connections with the KKK, invited him to a private meeting. It took three months to work out a secure location and find protection, and Simmons said he was fully prepared to engage in a conversation with a white supremacist who came with a prepared statement from the KKK in his hands.

But two things surprised Simmons about Abarr: He said he would consider the crimes in Gillette to be hate crimes and signed up to join the NAACP at that meeting.

“After that meeting I got slammed so hard,” Simmons said. “And (Abarr) would call me to see how I was doing.”

Abarr said it was that meeting and the subsequent death of his father that started changing his views.

“I didn’t really need to please him anymore,” he said.

His father taught him popular racist phrases as a child and it was his father who helped finance his attempts to run for political office in Montana in 2002 and 2011 while he was claiming the need for a pure white race.

He believes he’s a changed man and said he’s never tried to have his children believe the same things he once did. It used to be he wouldn’t want his daughter or son to marry a black person when they get older. That’s not the case anymore.

“I’d be upset if (my daughter) married someone who wasn’t smart,” Abarr said.

Still, though, there are skeptics. The Rev. Philip Caldwell, founder of Great Falls’ Mount Olive Christian Church and a leader in the black community, isn’t convinced.

“I don’t believe his motives are sound,” Caldwell said. “I’m not sure he’s on the up and up. I don’t trust him.”

Abarr wears a hat with the slogan “Make America Great Again” and is a supporter of Donald Trump’s Republican campaign for president.

Trump, Abarr knows, has been criticized for comments about Muslims, immigration and other minorities.

“I think there are a lot of people here illegally,” Abarr said.

He said he worked for a Muslim family when he worked at a Super 8 Motel and said he’s fine with people who want to legally immigrate to the U.S., but argued that there needs to be a better process for vetting extremist Muslims and terrorists who might enter the U.S.

He doesn’t believe that makes him racist.

Simmons believes in Abarr. He thinks it’s possible to have a change of heart. His own father-in-law was not happy when his white daughter married a black man. But Simmons said they overcame that and developed a great relationship.

He’s well aware of Abarr’s history. He’s known about him for the last 20 years and has video footage of him setting up protests at different equality rallies throughout the years.

“I believe John had the ability to change,” Simmons said. “It’s not a snap decision.”

He wishes Abarr would denounce the Klan, which is not something Abarr said he will do. However, he’s no longer a part of the KKK and said, “I don’t support people who are against gays and minorities.”

Abarr tried to start a new chapter of the KKK last year that was open to people of all minorities, religious beliefs and sexual orientation. He still wanted to belong to the KKK because of its fraternal organization appeal. But, he said, no one was willing to join, so he’s since abandoned that idea.

Simmons said there’s a 50-50 chance Abarr hasn’t done a complete 180. But organizing an event to celebrate the life of a civil rights icon is a big step.

“You’re going to have to do some trusting,” he said.

Or you need to have faith, said Slabaugh Hart, to believe a person can have a change of heart.

“I guess I agreed to host (the celebration) because why not?” she said. “That’s what we’re in the business of helping people do. That’s my prayer for anybody.”

Reach Tribune Staff Writer Kristen Cates at 791-1463. Follow her on Twitter @GFTrib_KCates.