A sadly relevant tale: the 1970 murder of an innocent black man by three white men

The state of North Carolina is a perfect example of “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” In Blood Done Sign My Name, Tim Tyson recounts a story from his youth in Oxford, NC in which a young black man is murdered by three white men, all of whom were fully acquitted by a white jury.

The heart of Tyson’s story is the 1970 murder of Henry Marrow, a black Vietnam veteran with a wife, two children, and another on the way. He supposedly spoke to a white woman in a lascivious manner which was all the reason Robert Teel, who owned a small grocery store in the “black” section of town, and his two sons (one of whom was married to the woman) needed to chase, beat, kick and shoot Marrow in the head with a shotgun at close range.

Marrow, who was only 23 at the time of his death, had come to Teel’s store to buy his grandmother a Pepsi.

 Mrs Smith Reads Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy B. Tyson