But the focus of Tim Tyson's book, the North Carolinian veteran Dickie Marrow was attacked and murdered by a gang of white men. The police and the jury system, much like the legislature of the state of Mississippi were complicit in the violence, and eventually the African-Americans of the community rioted in response to the delay and the fact the men were not convicted. On the pretext that Marrow had made an inappropriate comment towards a white woman, he became a subject of vengeance, recalled the author in a 2004 interview with NPR, a white man whose father was an anti-segregation minister, and African-Americans, after initially cooperating with the investigation, felt that they had no other recourse but street violence ("Tim Tyson, 'Blood Done Sign My Name,'"2004, NPR: Morning Edition).
Marrow's death came to symbolize all of the oppression and injustice inflicted upon African-Americans, and the deferred promises of the civil rights movement, summed up in the word on Marrow's grave -- Vietnam -- even though he did not serve in Vietnam although he did serve in the army ("Tim Tyson, 'Blood Done Sign My Name,'" 2004, NPR: Morning Edition). Sadly, the sense that conventional methods of empowerment and resistance, like education and the ballot box could not free African-Americans was also symbolized during the riots, as "demonstrators burned down Oxford's tobacco warehouses, which represented the heart of its economy" (Winkler, 2004: 1).
Reading these two books is a difficult emotional experience, for while it is heartening to cheer the Carters, and their refusal to bow down to violence, it is also difficult to condemn the anger of the African-Americans in Tyson's narrative. At least Tyson himself, an adolescent during the riots, used his experiences in a...
He was friends with the son of the man who committed the murder, yet today this white man is a professor of African-American studies, still struggling to understand the complex interplay between race and community relations in America. "The story has been burning in my brain since I was eleven years old," Tyson stated in an interview ("Tim Tyson -- Audio Interview," 2004, Eye on Books).
Primary Sources
Curry, Constance. (1996). Silver Rights. New York: Harvest.
Tyson, Tim. (1994). Blood Done Sign My Name. New York; Crown Books.
Interviews
Tim Tyson, 'Blood Done Sign My Name'." (10 Nov 2004). NPR: Morning Edition. Retrieved 6 Nov 2007. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4162533
Tim Tyson -- Audio Interview." (2004). Eye on Books. Retrieved 6 Nov 2007 at http://www.eyeonbooks.com/ibp.php?ISBN=0609610589
Journals
Winkler, Eugene H. (2 Nov 2004). "Blood Done Sign My Name." Christian Century Retrieved 6 Nov 2007 at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_22_121/ai_n6358845
Newspapers
Roberts, Shearon. (28 Apr 2007). "Advocating for Silver Rights." The Wall Street
Journal. Retrieved 6 Nov 2007 at. http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2006/04/28/advocating-for-silver-rights/
Silver Rights Book Tour Begins in Clarksdale." (27 Nov 1995). The Southern Register. Retrieved 6 Nov 2007 at http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/south/register/95/fall/silverr.html
Websites
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: 42 U.S.C. 2000d." (2007). U.S. Department
Of Justice: Civil Rights Division. Official Website. Retrieved 6 Nov 2007 at http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/cor/coord/titlevi.htm
