Blood Done Sign My Name, Timothy B. Tyson
Blood Done Sign My Name, Timothy B. Tyson
8 Rating(s)
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Blood Done Sign My Name
A True Story

Author: Timothy B. Tyson

Narrator: Robertson Dean

Unabridged: 11 hr 57 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/09/2004

Synopsis

The “riveting”* true story of the fiery summer of 1970, which would forever transform the town of Oxford, North Carolina—a classic portrait of the fight for civil rights in the tradition of To Kill a Mockingbird
 
*Chicago Tribune

On May 11, 1970, Henry Marrow, a twenty-three-year-old black veteran, walked into a crossroads store owned by Robert Teel and came out running. Teel and two of his sons chased and beat Marrow, then killed him in public as he pleaded for his life. 
 
Like many small Southern towns, Oxford had barely been touched by the civil rights movement. But in the wake of the killing, young African Americans took to the streets. While lawyers battled in the courthouse, the Klan raged in the shadows and black Vietnam veterans torched the town’s tobacco warehouses. Tyson’s father, the pastor of Oxford’s all-white Methodist church, urged the town to come to terms with its bloody racial history. In the end, however, the Tyson family was forced to move away. 
 
Tim Tyson’s gripping narrative brings gritty blues truth and soaring gospel vision to a shocking episode of our history.
 
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD
 
“If you want to read only one book to understand the uniquely American struggle for racial equality and the swirls of emotion around it, this is it.”—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
 
“Blood Done Sign My Name is a most important book and one of the most powerful meditations on race in America that I have ever read.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer
 
“Pulses with vital paradox . . . It’s a detached dissertation, a damning dark-night-of-the-white-soul, and a ripping yarn, all united by Tyson’s powerful voice, a brainy, booming Bubba profundo.”—Entertainment Weekly
 
“Engaging and frequently stunning.”—San Diego Union-Tribune

About The Author

Timothy B. Tyson is a senior research scholar at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, a visiting professor of American Christianity and Southern culture at Duke Divinity School, and an adjunct professor of American studies at the University of North Carolina. Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power won the James Rawley Prize for best book on race and the Frederick Jackson Turner Prize for best first book in US history from the Organization of American Historians. Blood Done Sign My Name (2004) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the Southern Book Award for Nonfiction and the Grawemeyer Award in Religion, among others. He serves on the executive board of the North Carolina NAACP.Robertson Dean has acted on- and off-Broadway and in many leading roles at regional theaters throughout the United States. His film work includes Star Trek: Nemesis and Vanilla Sky.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Tobey

I apologize in advance if this becomes something other than a book review. I live about two hours away from Oxford, North Carolina where fourty years ago Henry Marrow was beaten and murdered in the street for no reason other than the fact that he was black man who talked to a white woman. So it is a......more

Goodreads review by Jeff

I was pretty surprised how disappointed I was with this book. It came to me very highly recommended, and it contains all of the tropes I typically fall (hard) for, in setting, style and substance. But as I slogged through it--and it was a slog--I was continually frustrated by how much the author was......more

Goodreads review by Jay

I read this wonderful book my first year at Sarah Lawrence in my "Introduction to African American History" seminar. This book is an intricate mix of memoir and historical non-fiction. Tim Tyson tells the story of the events surrounding the murder of a young black man in his hometown in Oxford, NC.......more

Quotes

“Admirable and unexpected...a riveting story that will have his readers weeping with both laughter and sorrow.” —Chicago Tribune

“Blood Done Sign My Name is a most important book and one of the most powerful meditations on race in America that I have ever read.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Pulses with vital paradox . . . It’s a detached dissertation, a damning dark-night-of-the-white-soul, and a ripping yarn, all united by Tyson’s powerful voice, a brainy, booming Bubba profundo.” —Entertainment Weekly

“If you want to read only one book to understand the uniquely American struggle for racial equality and the swirls of emotion around it, this is it.” —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“Engaging and frequently stunning.” —San Diego Union-Tribune

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