"Blood Done Sign My Name"
Carolina's 2005 Summer Reading Book Has Relevance to UNC.
By LAURA FRIED
Summer 2005
Finally, a summer reading book has been chosen that has relevance to UNC and actually takes place in North Carolina. This year, incoming freshman students are not greeted by an account of life at West Point or an introduction to Muslim religion. Instead, they will read an account of racial relations in a small North Carolina town. Blood Done Sign My Name, by Timothy Tyson, is one of UNC’s best choices yet for freshman summer reading.
The book is a documentary intertwined with an autobiography. Set in his hometown of Oxford, North Carolina, Tyson chronicles the events following the public murder of Henry Marrow, a black Vietnam veteran. The murderers were a white store owner, Robert Teel and his son Larry. Robert Teel’s stepson also played a role in the murder. The pair justified their actions by saying that Marrow made inappropriate comments to Larry’s wife. Tyson was ten years old at the time of the event, yet he calls this event a turning point of his life.
Following the murder, in which Marrow was beaten and shot twice, once in the leg and once in the head, the town is in an uproar. The Teels, even with witnesses to the murder and a confession from Teel’s stepson, are acquitted of the charges. The black residents of the town hold protests and rallies in the streets, while the Ku Klux Klan becomes active.
As a final protest, black townsfolk burn much of Oxford, including tobacco barns, causing massive amounts of property damage and loss of profitable tobacco. Tyson recounts not only actual historical events, but includes his own family history as well. He is the son of a Methodist minister who urged integration and was long a defender of equal racial rights. The views he held caused the entire Tyson family to be forced to leave Oxford.
Although the topic of race relations often seems ubiquitous in Southern literature the book is an interesting account for several reasons. Timothy Tyson is a white man. This adds an interesting twist because it shows how thoughtful whites responded when faced with crass injustice. Most of the time, such books are written from the point of view of a black person or a racist white person. Tyson is neither.
Tyson was also only ten years old at the time of the murder. He is able to show a child’s perspective and response to the murder and the following events and also how these events have shaped the rest of his life. Tyson has grown up to be a professor of African-American Studies in Wisconsin, demonstrating the lasting impression the issue of racial strife has had on his life.
Tolerance and respect are also two very important qualities stressed at Carolina and it can never hurt to have a discussion on the two.
Overall, the book is well written and thought provoking. It is applicable to UNC because it touches on topics that have affected the state’s past and continue to affect it now. It will lead to good discussions for incoming students about the ever prevalent topic of race relations and respect. Finally, UNC chose a book that makes sense for summer reading.