Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains references to racism and racialized violence.

Timothy B. Tyson is the author of Radio Free Dixie. Tyson is a writer and historian whose work focuses on African American history and the civil rights movement. Tyson has firsthand experience with his subject matter; He was born in North Carolina and grew up during the peak of the civil rights movement. Tyson was 11 years old and living in Oxford, North Carolina, when a Black veteran named Henry Marrow was killed by a group of white men. The acquittal of Marrow’s killers by an all-white jury sparked protests and boycotts throughout Oxford. Marrow’s father, a Methodist minister, was driven from his church due to his support of the civil rights movement. Tyson later recounted his perspective on Marrow’s murder in his 2004 memoir, Blood Done Sign My Name.

As an adult, Tyson earned a doctorate from Duke University and held teaching positions at several universities, focusing on African American studies and history. He currently serves on the executive board of the North Carolina NAACP as well as the University of North Carolina Center for Civil Rights.