On Stage for Youth: Blood Done Sign My Name

Mike Wiley brings to life the reconciliations of author Tim Tyson surrounding the 1970 murder of Henry Marrow in Oxford, NC. Marrow, who was black, was chased from a local store by three white men after reportedly making a crude remark to one of the men’s wives. They brutally beat Marrow ten killed him in view of multiple witnesses. Despite eyewitness reports, an all-white jury acquitted the men. The town’s black community responded with an uprising that destroyed businesses and warehouses. Tyson, who was 10 at the time, recounts how the events shaped his life and offers all of us an opportunity to examine our own roles in the complex and often confusing racial fabric of America. Suggested for middle school ages and up.