Description
âDaddy and Roger and âem shot âem a nigger.â Those words, whispered to ten-year-old Tim Tyson by a playmate, heralded a ?restorm that would ceaselessly grow to be the tobacco market town of Oxford, North Carolina.
On Would possibly 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 within the wake of the killing, young African Americans took to the streets. Even as lawyers battled within the courthouse, the Klan raged within the shadows and black Vietnam veterans torched the townâs tobacco warehouses. Tysonâs father, the pastor of Oxfordâs all-white Methodist church, urged the town to come to terms with its bloody racial history. In spite of everything, then again, the Tyson circle of relatives used to be forced to transport away.
Tim Tysonâs riveting narrative of that fiery summer brings gritty blues truth, soaring gospel vision, and down-home humor to a shocking episode of our history. Like To Kill a Mockingbird, Blood Done Sign My Name is a classic portrait of an unforgettable time and place.