Blood Done Sign My Name By Timothy Tyson

The White man’s connection to “Blood Done Sign My Name” The book entitled “Blood Done Sign My Name”, is one of the most powerful and impactful books I have ever read. Author, Timothy Tyson is able to tell the story of the killing of Henry Marrow from a unique perspective. The murder, which took place on May 11, 1970 would be a monumental element to the civil rights movement that was in progress at the time. Although, the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, segregation and racism sill filled the streets of Oxford, North Carolina in 1970. It was evident that racism still existed by closely looking at the documents and event surrounding the court trial that followed the murder. Although many events happened that shouldn’t have, the murder of

From the opening statement, until the last sentence, Tyson draws audiences in with a fascination to the harsh realities of segregation. For more current generations, like myself, racism to the extreme of the events within the book haven’t been witnessed. The hatred that was practiced by men, women and young children of this time is disturbing. The thesis of the book is found at the end of chapter one and says, “So while this is the story of a small boy in a small town one hot Southern summer, it is also the story of a nation torn apart by racial, political, social and cultural clashes so deep that they echo in our lives to this day”. Within his thesis, Tyson also makes it known that he is telling the story from not only his point of view, but others who were faced with racism in his

The white race felt that they were superior to other races of color and some of this same ideology is practiced by racist hate groups today. White Supremacy made it very hard for African Americans to get a non-laborious job. “Black people did not work at the bank or at the stores downtown, nor anywhere where they might have direct contact with white customers. Restaurants did not hire blacks to wait tables-and white diners would not have wanted black hands to bring them their meals, although everyone knew that black hands in the kitchen had patted out that biscuit dough and fried that chicken.” Although African Americans are human with very similar DNA to White people, they were still looked at as less than human due to white supremacy. However, there were white individuals who did not participate in practicing white supremacy. The Tyson family was among these white people who treated African American no different from any other person. This ideology caused many conflicts with the townspeople of Oxford, and Reverend Tyson. An instance when Reverend was attempted to be suppressed, Tyson wanted to have a memorial service for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and many racists in the church did not like the idea of that. Many men came into his study and said “This is our church, and you cannot have it here. This ain’t your church, Vernon, this is our church. And I am telling