by Timothy B. Tyson. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2005. ISBN 1400083117. Pb., 368 pp., $14.
Many words will be spilled over this review of Timothy B. Tyson’s autobiography, Blood Done Sign My Name. All of them are intended to encourage you: read it; invite your congregation members to read it; listen deeply to what it says to you, in you, and about you.
Tyson provides one of the most engaging autobiographies this reviewer has read. He integrates his coming of age story into the crime of murder, committed in an apparent spirit of racial supremacy. He challenges us to see more than is comfortable and to admit all that we know but dare not speak.
Tyson’s generous personal story, woven with his clear and accessible exposition of complex civil rights history, captivated me. He cleverly negotiates the distance between past and present, between his story and the story and laces it all with theological assertions, challenges, and hope. Tyson avoids the dangers of nostalgia by delving into the messy complexities of racism and our continuing grasp toward, but not of, reconciliation. Chapters are measured with insightful humor and grit, making the recounting of pain caused by the sins inherently consequent given racism in our culture and in our church more palatable.
This text was selected for entering students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to read before entering college. Students around my discussion table confessed they knew little about the civil rights movement, and even less about the details of events in Oxford, N. C., in 1970 and following. It was difficult to distinguish whether they were uncertain or uncomfortable discussing the present political and cultural dynamics of race. They articulated appreciation for Tyson’s wit, and admitted to some frustration with the details of history entwined in the mix.
Members of University Church in Chapel Hill found the text engaging and disturbing in other ways. Many of us were unaware of the murder of Henry Marrow even though it occurred near our town, and even though we lived here at the time.
For those of us who claim proudly (or otherwise) to be southerners, the truths Tyson’s book illuminates are difficult and painful to confront. He balances a direct style with clever turns of phrase, capturing in his very language the culture he hopes to convey, incorporating both its charm and shadows. We would, I suspect, wish to transcend the history and evil of racism rather than to confront it, but Blood Done Sign My Name challenges us beyond our wishes for reprieve and into our desire for redemption.
Because of the confessional nature of this book, because of the powerful testimony to one pastor’s prophetic voice and the costs incurred for himself and his family, because the author writes in keeping with the best tradition of Old Testament storytelling, one is willing, and in some instances longing, to muster the courage required to understand reconciliation in terms of redemption rather than ‘getting along nicely’.
The actors in this drama are whole people; they are not whitewashed. They are complex and motivated, and living as best they can in their times, often missing opportunities for healing and courage and sometimes taking them. Tyson refrains from caricature and deference and describes such detail that we can claim these Christian sisters and brothers as our own, and in our most honest moments, as us.
Tyson’s book is a true story about him. It is also a true story about us. It is the story of when we were brave but misguided and when we have lacked courage altogether. It is the story of why we cannot baptize children in our white congregations and claim they are no longer white as the waters dribble down their snowy gowns. It is the story of what could be and is not yet.
For congregations, this book could provide new ground for the discussion of what it means to be a child of God. It could provoke conversation between clergy and laity about what truth should be spoken from our pulpits today. It could provide opportunity to think together about what matters in Christian faith and to wonder at the points of silence we so loudly hear on Sunday mornings in our worship.
This book is important and hopeful and masterful. It is not comfortable or soothing. It calls us to look within and behind and to find the courage to see and speak the truth of who we are and where we have been. It is a call to all of us to be God’s people.
Caroline E. Craig is associate pastor for campus ministry at University Church, Chapel Hill, N.C.
