Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story

Oxford residents in 1970 experience first-hand the transition from King-era nonviolence to Black Power militancy. This transition is anything but seamless, however, as Black leaders are often divided along generational lines between those who idolized or even marched with King and those who came of age in the Vietnam era. Even among younger militants, the movement is not monolithic. Ben Chavis, the public face of Oxford’s Black militancy, actually plays no direct role in most of the violence against white-owned property. Black Vietnam veterans, armed with firebombs, conduct military-style operations against high-value targets such as tobacco warehouses.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, May 17, 1970, the day after the Marrow funeral, Chavis joins Golden Frinks, Eddie McCoy, and others in organizing the first in a series of post-church marches. These are all-Black affairs, as white liberals such as Reverend Tyson and Thad Stem have no real place in a Black Power movement. The Ku Klux Klan organizes counter-rallies. With schools set to integrate in the fall and with tensions worsening, Chavis and Frinks plan a 50-mile march to Raleigh, the state capital.