Teach-in Continues March 22 with Presentation Featuring Author of Blood Done Sign My Name

Tim Tyson, author of the book Blood Done Sign My Name, will be joined by his father, Vernon Tyson, and other presenters for a program on race and reconciliation Thursday, March 22, at 7 p.m. in Dana Auditorium. The program is free and open to the public and is part of Guilford's teach-in series responding to the Jan. 20 incident in the Bryan Hall courtyard.

The Tysons will be joined by gospel singer Mary D. Williams and Holocaust scholar Fred Katz for the evening program, which will include a Q&A with Tim Tyson about the book and reflections from Vernon Tyson and Katz, who were roommates at Guilford.

Blood Done Sign My Name is "a riveting narrative" of a murder in the summer of 1970 in the town of Oxford, N.C., and of the Tysons' struggle to build bridges in a time of destruction. Crown Publishing Group says the 2004 book "brings gritty blues truth, soaring gospel vision and down-home humor to our complex history, where violence and faith, courage and evil, despair and hope all mingle to illuminate America's enduring chasm of race."

Tim Tyson is currently serving as Senior Scholar at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, with secondary appointments in the Duke Divinity School and the Department of History.  He taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1994-2006.  He earned his bachelor’s degree from Emory University in 1987 and his doctorate from Duke in 1994.  Tyson has published three books, including Blood Done Sign My Name, which won the Southern Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Vernon Tyson, who is a central figure in the book, earned a bachelor’s degree from Guilford in 1953 and has spent his career serving as a minister in United Methodist churches throughout eastern North Carolina.  Semi-retired, he is now serving an interim appointment with an African-American congregation in Fayetteville, N.C.

Williams has shared her gift of music with churches and festivals for many years and performed with Bobby Jones, Sister Cantaloupe, Lee Williams and the Spiritual QC’s, Luther Barnes and Keith Johnson, among other artists.   She was named Female Vocalist of the Year by the N.C. Gospel Announcers Guild.

Katz is the author of two books about the Holocaust, Ordinary People and Extraordinary Evil: A Report on the Beguilings of Evil, and Confronting Evil: Two Journeys.  He escaped Germany in 1939 under the child-rescue operation known as Kindertransport.  The rest of his family was killed in the Holocaust.  Katz earned a bachelor’s degree from Guilford in 1952 and a doctorate from UNC Chapel Hill.

The Tysons, Williams and Katz will spend all day March 22 on campus meeting with students, faculty and staff.

March 22, 2007