Blood Done Sign My Name Analysis

Kevin Aguirre Rodriguez
Blood Done Sign My Name - Book Review
HIS 132 – American Histories II – Section 0B
A. Marco
April 1, 2015

The constant struggle for social reform and the inequality faced by many African Americans shows their willingness to be acknowledged, the start of the Civil Rights Movement commenced with the freedom granted to them by the Reconstruction Amendments. The prospect of knowledge and willingness sprung a powerful flow of African Americans who wanted to be recognized as human beings and as equals to the white population.
In Blood Done Sign My Name, the character Timothy Tyson recollects his past life in Oxford North Carolina. The book begins with the killing of Henry Marrow; the town is spun into chaos and Tyson’s family is forced out of the city by threats from the Ku Klux Klan. The story is confusing but it gives a broader aspect of the Civil Rights Movement, by giving actual accounts from people both from the past and present when he interviews them. The story gives accounts from the end of World

War II and the start of the Civil Rights Movement, and explains the reasoning of African Americans to join the war. The introduction of other clashes in society of the same time period helps the reader see a broader picture; during the same time period the events from the story. Martin Luther king Jr. is assassinated, and people begin rioting in different areas of the nation. The story is an actual account from people who lived in the time period, and it is full of the opinions of those same people (Civil Rights for Minorities).
Although segregation was more prevalent in the south, many of the Ku Klux Klan supporters backed the Klan because of fear they had introduced into the minds of the people.

Speculations about the mixing of races and the change in society was a major fear by prevalent white Americans; this fear was mostly shared by the older generation of individuals who did not want to see the culture they had lived in for so long dissipate. The generation of those who had feared mixing of races had begun to fall victim to a new generation that accepted this change much more willingly. The only way to prevent the new generations from mixing was to segregate schools and public areas such as parks, restaurants, and buses. The Ku Klux Klan would also intimidate those individuals who would not succumb to their ways of society and cultural views, burning crosses in people’s yards sending threatening messages, bombing homes, and destroying

property.
The start of World War II saw a massive enlisting of African Americans; these individuals believed that if they fought alongside the white Americans that it would change the views of society and allow them to improve their image. Although a few areas saw some small change many would not be easily persuaded. Many of the white generations that had existed before the Civil Rights Movement and the Second World War felt a sense of superiority. There would be no way that they would accept the drastic change willingly. There was a view of African Americans that stood for much longer after World War II, but the change had begun, and even though miniscule, the older generations began to see it. The acceptance of a few African Americans as people to the white Americans and growing fears of integration created a backlash of increased lynching, property destruction, and broadened equality gaps made possible by Jim Crow Laws (Civil Rights for Minorities)
The murder of Martin Luther King Jr. was seen by many African Americans as an end to their pursuit of equality, but for a few it was a chance to rise up and fight for the equality they wanted. As more African Americans became increasingly educated, more began to protest and many rose up to challenge the Jim Crow Laws. Many African Americans protested in the North but a few traveled to the South where they knew that they would be faced with a population of people who would most definitely attack them; the actions taken were but a chance to show the nation that things were going to change and that with effort acceptance and acknowledgement of their culture would improve.
Blood Done Sign My Name ties to actual events of the time period and people’s accounts and their views on the matter give an accurate image of personal experiences of the historical events. The transition to the past after every chapter is a difficult way to write the story, but the whole story paints a vivid image in the reader’s mind. The troubles and conflicts, the ways African Americans were taken advantage of, and the way they were mistreated by people and the law, is an intriguing picture that not many stories have. The book is different from others in that others paint a broad picture of a whole, whereas this story takes place in small area focusing on the changes in a specific place while incorporating a few from other places.

Work Cited
Tyson, Timothy B. Blood Done Sign My Name. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2004. Print
“Civil Rights for Minorities During and After World War II”. www.livinghistoryfarm.org. Retrieved Mar. 29, 2015, Web.