Play Audiobook Sample
Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(4.00) - 1,237 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
The “riveting”* true story of the fiery summer of 1970, which would forever transform the town of Oxford, North Carolina—a classic portrait of the fight for civil rights in the tradition of To Kill a Mockingbird *Chicago Tribune On May 11, 1970, Henry Marrow, a twenty-three-year-old black veteran, walked into a crossroads store owned by Robert Teel and came out running. Teel and two of his sons chased and beat Marrow, then killed him in public as he pleaded for his life. Like many small Southern towns, Oxford had barely been touched by the civil rights movement. But in the wake of the killing, young African Americans took to the streets. While lawyers battled in the courthouse, the Klan raged in the shadows and black Vietnam veterans torched the town’s tobacco warehouses. Tyson’s father, the pastor of Oxford’s all-white Methodist church, urged the town to come to terms with its bloody racial history. In the end, however, the Tyson family was forced to move away. Tim Tyson’s gripping narrative brings gritty blues truth and soaring gospel vision to a shocking episode of our history. FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD “If you want to read only one book to understand the uniquely American struggle for racial equality and the swirls of emotion around it, this is it.”—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “Blood Done Sign My Name is a most important book and one of the most powerful meditations on race in America that I have ever read.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer “Pulses with vital paradox . . . It’s a detached dissertation, a damning dark-night-of-the-white-soul, and a ripping yarn, all united by Tyson’s powerful voice, a brainy, booming Bubba profundo.”—Entertainment Weekly “Engaging and frequently stunning.”—San Diego Union-Tribune
Download and start listening now!
"We read this for February Non-Fiction book club here in London OH. It is about a young African-American Vietnam war vet that was beaten and shot to death in broad daylight for "maybe" speaking to a white woman in May 1972. The author's father was a civil rights activist and a white Methodist minister. Therefore ,his family was right at the center of the conflict that resulted from the murder. My main critcism of the book is that the author tended to digress from the main topic of the murder and the effects on the small southern community and its people. Still, was a good read."
— Michele (4 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
-
“Tyson has written an honest book, far more so than most explorations of race in America. He understands that the true past—to the extent we can ever know the ‘truth’ about the past—was vastly more complicated and bloody than the gussied-up past in which we so desperately want to believe, and that until we understand this, we will be incapable of redeeming ourselves and our country.”
— Washington Post -
“Pulses with vital paradox…It’s a detached dissertation, a damning dark-night-of-the-white-soul, and a ripping yarn, all united by Tyson’s powerful voice, a brainy, booming Bubba profundo.”
— Entertainment Weekly -
“Admirable and unexpected…A riveting story that will have his readers weeping with both laughter and sorrow.”
— Chicago Tribune -
“Blood Done Sign My Name is a most important book and one of the most powerful meditations on race in America that I have ever read.”
— Cleveland Plain Dealer -
“If you want to read only one book to understand the uniquely American struggle for racial equality and the swirls of emotion around it, this is it.”
— Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Awards
-
A 2004 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist
Blood Done Sign My Name Listener Reviews
-
" I found this book to be a valiant yet failed attempt to deal with a very difficult historical topic in memoir form. Structurally, it was very obviously the product of a historian trying to write a literary narrative, which left the characters nebulous, the narrator ungrounded, and the "story-line" generally detached. Throughout the book I struggled with, and never really got over, the problems inherent in a white man's attempt to write another culture's history through the lens of experiences he barely understood during his childhood and adolescence. While the history is sensitive, it is also often appropriative; I was particularly disturbed with the use of a line from an African American spiritual, "Blood Done Sign My Name" as the title, especially because the "MY" implies that the narrator/author actually DID something other than spectate. While Tyson is indeed courageous to have attempted to put this history down on paper, particularly in the form of a "memoir," it was more problematic than self-aware. Perhaps this just wasn't his story to write (though I'm sure it will be argued, "Who will write it?"). "
— Heather, 2/20/2014 -
" listening to audiobook. I highly recommend this format because the author reads his own work. This choice of narrator not brings a deeply personal knowledge to the text. By having the author, a native North Carolinian, read his book, he can bring to life with a natural Southern accent and first-hand knowledge of regional dialects. "
— Mary, 2/7/2014 -
" based right here in North Carolina - a gripping tale of the south and the tragedy and pain in race relations... best book on race in the south I've read so far. does not offer easy answers. nicely bridges personal experience with historical perspectiev. really worth reading. "
— RF, 1/29/2014 -
" Very good book. Great for book club discussions. Will pass this on to my dayghter in 9th grade to read. "
— Gail, 1/28/2014 -
" One of the best firsthand accounts of 1970s civil rights struggles. Hauntingly honest. "
— Jackson, 1/22/2014 -
" A granular look at what the Civil Rights achieved, and did not achieve, in a small Southern town, and a memoir about struggling with the issue of race in a tragic context. "
— Peter, 1/19/2014 -
" Never finished. Interesting but difficult to read; too packed with facts and jumps around a lot. "
— Suzi, 1/1/2014 -
" Felt like I was reading a dissertation. "
— Ann, 12/22/2013 -
" This is a great book. "
— Genya, 12/21/2013 -
" see my comments on Debby's books "
— Lizzie, 12/11/2013 -
" Mind boggling. 1970's racism in the southeast. I got to meet the author . . . makes it even better. "
— Ingrid, 12/6/2013 -
" An interesting memoir that opened my eyes to life in the South in the 1970's--not so far away or so long ago. "
— Christine, 11/21/2013 -
" Truly remarkable and thought provoking. "
— Silas, 7/7/2013 -
" Omg I found this book so hard to read and eventually gave up. It had fab reviews and I was really looking forward to it, but it wasn't written in a way I found easy to read; there appeared to be no sense of order to it and despite giving it a few months it got the better of me. "
— Denise, 5/30/2013 -
" Blood... written by a historian with a memoirist's style. A story straight from the heart of Carolina and includes chapters on Wilmington. At times, Tyson hops on the soapbox, but it's easy to forgive him by the end. Fascinating and eye-opening text. "
— Visha, 12/3/2011 -
" Amazing, heartbreaking, thought provoking, insightful. This is how history should be written. Felt like sitting in on his class. I recommend this to anyone. "
— Jasmine, 12/2/2011 -
" Rec'ed by Molly. Reads more like non-fiction, but is packaged as a memoir. "
— Flossie, 11/16/2011 -
" One of the most important books I have read in a long time. Debunks a lot of myths about the "peaceful" civil rights movement. It's not a fast read, but it's well worth it. "
— Jamie, 10/3/2011 -
" Interesting history of race struggles in North Carolina. "
— Barbara, 4/5/2011 -
" Great story! I can't imagine what it must have been like to be lying under a car and witness what the main character did! I remember those times, thankfully we have made progress...Still have a way to go! "
— Susan, 3/14/2011 -
" Oh, what a good book. "
— Terry, 2/28/2011 -
" Really well written and good insights into the Civil Rights movement in NC. It makes the book more interesting that it was written by a white man as he struggled to understand the events happening in the late 1960's/early 1970's. "
— Brooke, 1/17/2011 -
" Would actually give this a 3.5 -- it was well researched, and I learned a lot about race relations in eastern NC in the 1960s and 70s, but I found the author to be just a tad self-indulgent at times -- he also could have benefited from a more ruthless editor. "
— Emily, 12/28/2010 -
" Amazing, heartbreaking, thought provoking, insightful. This is how history should be written. Felt like sitting in on his class. I recommend this to anyone. "
— Jasmine, 12/24/2010 -
" A must-read that will challenge everything you've thought about a terrible time in our history that is still pervasive today. Portions are very tough to read. "
— Amanda, 11/6/2010 -
" I thought the book would cover more about Henry Marrow but instead covered more of the author's family history. Overall, an excellent read on the state of race relations today. "
— Jenene, 10/25/2010
About Timothy B. Tyson
Timothy B. Tyson is senior research scholar at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, visiting professor of American Christianity and Southern Culture at Duke Divinity School, and adjunct professor of American Studies at the University of North Carolina. He is the author several books, including Blood Done Sign My Name, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and winner of the Southern Book Award for Nonfiction and the Grawemeyer Award in Religion, and Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power, winner of the James Rawley Prize for best book on race, and the Frederick Jackson Turner Prize for best first book in US History from the Organization of American Historians. He serves on the executive board of the North Carolina NAACP and the UNC Center for Civil Rights.
About Robertson Dean
Robertson Dean has played leading roles on and off Broadway and at dozens of regional theaters throughout the country. He has a BA from Tufts University and an MFA from Yale. His audiobook narration has garnered ten AudioFile Earphones Awards. He now lives in Los Angeles, where he works in film and television in addition to narrating.