What Is The Theme Of Blood Done Sign My Name By Timothy Tyson

As an associate professor of Afro-American Studies, the author of the memoir Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story, has his own in depth personal experience with racial division. The author, Timothy Tyson lives in Wisconsin but was born and raised in North Carolina. The memoir published in 2004, Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story closely examines civil rights in the South and the racial gap particularly in Oxford, North Carolina. The book was given the title from a slave spiritual that evolved into a hymn, “The Blood Done Sign My Name” that the author cherished, given his upbringing in the church. The song represents significance to the struggle of African Americans and like the song the constant changing with the hope that they may never

The South had barely been exposed to the civil rights movement because of its own resistance now faced a trial that represented more than just capital murder. The trial and conviction would mean the South had now accepted the change which had been forced upon them according to the Supreme Court. Even though the memoir is set mainly in the year of 1970, the civil rights movement had been evolving for years. Dating back prior to the American Civil War, civil rights leaders have been advocating for the equal rights of African Americans. Several cornerstones of the civil rights movement are noted to be turning points in history, these became momentous for the nation but in the South the struggle remained stagnant for years. The author mentions a couple of these turning points in the

Not only was the author trying to convey the civil rights movement and the impact it had on his life, but he also was trying to explain how it affected the South. Despite government efforts to establish equality in the American people the white supremacy and resistance caused a sluggish change in the South. It took racially charged events and violence to make a small impact on the cultural divide. The author also enlightens the reader on how in present day the South attempts in every way to pretend that such a resistance did not exist. The privileged, pretentious white community then audaciously moves on as it nothing has happened in an attempt to soothe it plagued conscience. Tyson’s attempts to tell the story constantly flanked by the opposition; court documents unable to be recovered, a white community who refuses to speak to him, police harassment, and so forth. The entire tragedy becomes more than just the story of the heinous act itself, but the painful lack of acknowledgement by the very transgressors. There is the original pain compounded with painful invalidation. In summation of the book, the author wishes to influence the reader and hopes that despite the overlook and disregarding of the past, the future can be changed for the better for integration and equality. “Like the nameless slave poets who wrote the