Racism has been an issue for many years and will continue to occur in the future. In the years of the 1800’s and earlier, slavery existed and blacks were horribly mistreated in America. However, the act of owning another person was abolished in the mid 1800’s; this didn't stop people from harassing, harming, and killing innocent black citizens. By the middle of the 20th century it seemed that the mistreating of black lives needed to be stopped. This lead to the civil rights movement with leaders like Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks, that all risked everything to take a stand. Peaceful protests, riots, and actual court cases occurred. Also, there was some government interaction, and change actually seemed like it could occur. All this seemed to vanish in the novel Blood Done Sign My Name, by Timothy B. Tyson, which was in 1970 in a small town in North Carolina. The book portrayed an event that influenced many riots and shown that even though a black person isn't a piece of property, as white superiors would say, …show more content…
Being brought up in a southern rural area, which is surrounded by racists, made it the norm. This feeling infected Tyson at the age of six. His family’s maid was a black woman and she brought over her son one day. Tyson and his friend immediately shunned the black child. In fact, the two ended up slamming a door in the boy's face and sang “Nigger-nigger-niiiiiii-ger, nigger-nigger-niiiiiii-ger.” He wasn't brought up in a racist family, wasn't racist himself, but still displayed these harmful characteristics. He is still in pain this day for acting so cruelly. Other parts of everyday life were affected by the racism people had. Back to the murder in 1970, the man wouldn't of been killed if the murderer didn't have a general hatred towards his skin color. If it was a white man that was supposedly flirting, a bullet wouldn't of pierced someone's skull that