Overview
The Carolina Summer Reading Program is designed to introduce you to the intellectual life of Carolina. Expected of all new undergraduate students (first year and transfer), it involves reading an assigned book over the summer, and participating in a two-hour discussion with select faculty and staff members. The goals of the program are to enhance students' participation in the intellectual life of the campus through stimulating discussion and critical thinking around a current topic, to enhance a sense of community between students, faculty and staff, and to provide a common experience for incoming students. Some find they enjoy sharing the reading with members of their family during the summer.
This year's reading is Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story by Timothy B. Tyson.
On Monday, August 29, 2005, from 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m., all new students are expected to attend small group discussions led by selected faculty and staff. This is an opportunity for you to connect with members of Carolina's learning community and to share a common experience with your new peers. New students can learn more about preparing for these discussions by referring to sections of this website to be added soon.
Anyone interested in finding out about previous book selections, may refer to the Other First Year Initiatives section of this website.
The Book for Summer 2005
Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story explores events in rural North Carolina in the years following the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The book tells the story of the killing of Henry Marrow, a 23-year-old black veteran in Oxford, North Carolina who was brutally murdered by three white men in 1970. Author Timothy B. Tyson, a historian and professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was ten years old at the time of Marrow's murder. Tyson's father was a white, anti-segregationist Methodist minister who - in seeking to improve racial relations in his congregation and community - found himself and his family at the center of a widening racial gap in this small tobacco town in Granville County.
In this thoughtful and moving account, Tyson traces his own experiences with the Civil Rights Movement. In addition to relating an engaging story, Tyson fearlessly examines his own emotions and actions, providing startling insights of a white person touched in many ways by both the overt and subtle aspects of the racial tension that permeated the Jim Crow South. In recommending the book for the Carolina Summer Reading Program, we hope that Tyson's candor will inspire readers to confront the fears and emotions that often attend discussions of race and to engage in a secure and energizing dialogue informed by historical clarity. Although the book centers on race and the Civil Rights Movement, Tyson also provides insight into his own journey from childhood to a career as a distinguished historian. Part true crime book, part coming-of-age story, Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story invites us to examine how our own experiences shape our future actions and ambitions.
Purchasing Information: Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy Tyson (Three Rivers, 2004) will be available in paperback in early May 2005 at the Bull's Head Bookshop in the UNC Student Stores for $8.50. However, hardback copies of the book are available now and may be purchased at the Bull's Head for $14.26. The book will also be available at CTOPS and TSOP summer orientation sessions. If you purchase the book at CTOPS or TSOP you can eliminate shipping charges. Books may be ordered now at www.store.unc.edu.
The Author
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Timothy B. Tyson is a professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Tyson earned a Ph.D. from Duke University and is currently a fellow at the National Humanities Center in Research Triangle Park. His last book, Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power (UNC Press, 1999), won the James Rawley Prize and was co-winner of the Frederick Jackson Turner Prize both awarded by the Organization of American Historians to recognize distinguished books in history. |
Related Resources
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Related Events |
Other UNC-Chapel Hill First Year Initiatives
First Year Residential Experience
First Year Seminars
2004 Carolina Summer Reading Program
2003 Carolina Summer Reading Program
2002 Carolina Summer Reading Program
2001 Carolina Summer Reading Program
2000 Carolina Summer Reading Program
1999 Carolina Summer Reading Program
Resources for Book Discussion Leaders
Guidelines for Discussion Leaders
The Carolina Summer Reading Program developed from recommendations made by the 1997 Chancellor's Task Force on Intellectual Climate to improve the first-year student orientation experience. For questions/comments, send email to read@unc.edu.
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Last revised: August 23, 2005.