Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy Tyson
Tim Tyson used to teach African-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin and is now teaching at Duke (I’m confused about whether this is a long sabbatical or if he is officially a Duke hire.). He did some professing in the Divinity School this past year, which is why I first heard of him. He also led a pre-concert conversation with Mavis Staples this spring when she was here with the Blind Boys of Alabama. This little, smiley white man is perhaps an unlikely Afro-American studies professor, but after reading his personal history it makes much more sense.
Blood Done Sign My Name is part memoir, part history book. In Oxford, North Carolina in 1970, in the middle of a public street, three white men beat and killed a black man. This book tells the story of all those involved in the resulting riots, protests and trial. It also tells the story of Tyson’s family, as Tyson was a 10-year-old growing up in Oxford when the incident occurred and his father was the local Methodist minister.
I found the entire story pretty shocking. I mean, 1970 is not very long ago and Tyson recounts other racist events occurring in NC that are much more recent than that (I recently began to tell an acquaintance this and she said “you grew up in the Midwest, didn’t you?”). I had never thought about the fact (Tyson points this out) that when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, it wasn’t like people just said “Oh, okay, no problem” and just started letting blacks in. Cities closed public parks rather than opening them up to blacks. Public pools became private. Racism reigned on.
Tyson is able to present many perspectives on this story of injustice. Particularly interesting was the role of his father, a white minister who preached racial equality in a church that did want to hear about it. My only complaint about the book is that Tyson gives the central story such an abundance of context that it is rather disorganized and unwieldy. This is a piece of history that more people should know about. And, interestingly enough, they just finished filming a movie version. Read this book.
