dvaughan@heraldsun.com; 419-6563
DURHAM -- Tim Tyson's memoir "Blood Done Sign My Name," which includes his childhood memories of the murder of Henry Marrow in Oxford in May 1970, is now a movie.
Adapted by screenwriter Jeb Stuart ("Die Hard," "The Fugitive"), who also directed and produced the independent Paladin film, "Blood Done Sign My Name" will premiere at the Pan African Film and Arts Festival on Wednesday in Los Angeles. Earlier screenings were held at Hayti Heritage Center in Durham and this past week in Atlanta. It will be released to a wider audience Feb. 19.
Tyson's memoir, which talks about the role of his father, the Rev. Vernon Tyson, as a white Methodist pastor in Oxford in 1970, hit close to home for Stuart. Vernon Tyson is played by actor Rick Schroder in the film. Stuart grew up in Charlotte and Gastonia as the son of a Presbyterian minister. Stuart's father told him being a white pastor during the civil rights era was the most stressful time of his career.
Tyson, who teaches at Duke, also wrote about living in Sanford and Wilmington and his path to becoming a historian in his memoir, but Stuart chose to focus just on Oxford in 1970 rather than telling the story through a child's eyes.
"So much had to do with the sacrifices of the black community in Oxford," he said. Stuart took some creative license with the narrative, but everything regarding the murder was from the trial record, he said. In "Blood Done Sign My Name," Marrow, a young black man, was killed after making a comment to a white woman.
Father and son Robert and Larry Teel were acquitted.
Stuart didn't reach out to the Teel family or Ben Chavis, who played a major role -- in the film and in real life -- in leading black protests in Oxford.
"I wanted to be more objective about the entire story and take a step back," Stuart said.
Stuart said that Hollywood doesn't do a good job of making movies where black people help themselves. He noted "Mississippi Burning," where white FBI agents save the day, and the recent "The Blind Side," where a black youth is helped by a rich white family.
Tyson likes how Stuart has adapted his memoir. "The strength of Jeb's vision here is this is not a story of the good white people against the bad white people, with black people used as props," Tyson said. "African-Americans in Granville County stood up and said 'no more' in a messy, complicated way. It's not about saints and heroes. Vernon Tyson does not save the day."
There was a march to Raleigh from Oxford, there were protests, there was also destruction and burning of buildings. And the black community executed a successful economic boycott of businesses.
Gospel singer Mary D. Williams, who teaches "The South in Black and White" class with Tyson, is also in the movie. Nate Parker plays Chavis, and Afemo Omilami plays Golden Frinks. Other cast members include Lela Rochon as Roseana Allen and Nick Searcy as Robert Teel. Tyson said Parker is magnificent as Chavis and that Schroder and Vernon Tyson hit it off when they met.
In an early meeting about "Blood Done Sign My Name," the Tysons, Williams and Stuart met with Eddie McCoy at the gravesite of Marrow. McCoy, whose real-life role in 1970 Oxford is portrayed in the film, is a former Granville County commissioner, the first black to be elected there.
There is a cameo appearance by the late black historian, John Hope Franklin, whom the camera lingers on in a scene when protesters march from Oxford to Raleigh. Stuart asked Franklin to visit the set when they were filming in Statesville. Tim and Vernon Tyson are also both in the movie as jurors. James Ferguson, the prosecuting attorney during the trial, was at filming and his grandson is an extra in the courtroom scene.
Initially Tim Tyson lobbied for the movie to be filmed in Oxford, but Stuart found that logistically, it was easier and more affordable to film elsewhere in North Carolina -- in Shelby, Monroe and Statesville.
Tyson said the story of Marrow -- a young black man killed, the police and judicial response, men taking to the streets and a subsequent uproar -- could have been a story of racial violence and conflict that happened anywhere in the U.S.
"It's not even a Southern story. It's really the American story of race," Tyson said. "The difference is that Oxford has been willing to confront its past and talk about it. It's not perfect."
