Killing of Henry Marrow

Henry "Dickie" Marrow was born to Henry D. Marrow, Sr. and Ivey Hunt Marrow on January 7, 1947, in Oxford, North Carolina. His parents separated early on. After Henry, Sr. died in a violent quarrel, Ivey Marrow could not provide for her son alone. She went North for work in New Jersey. While she was gone, Marrow lived with his maternal grandparents in Oxford during his childhood. During his adolescence, he moved in with the family of Benjamin Chavis while he attended Mary Potter High School. After his graduation, Marrow attended Kittrell College for about a year. At the age of 19, Henry Marrow, Jr. joined the military and was stationed in Fort Bragg in the same state. Marrow did not like Army life and was reluctant to fight in Vietnam, where the United States had an increasing number of troops. He often returned to Oxford, making the three-hour trip sometimes to see Willie Mae Sidney, whom he would later marry. A 1978 article in The New York Times characterized Marrow as a Vietnam War veteran but, according to Timothy Tyson's 2004 history, Marrow never served there. He started working at Umstead Hospital in Butner. He and Willie May Sidney had two daughters together. She was pregnant with a third child when he was killed in 1970. Despite passage of federal civil rights legislation, Oxford in 1970 was still largely a segregated community. In the spring of 1970, white store owner, Robert Teel, was being boycotted by the local black community because he had beaten a black schoolteacher who had gotten into an argument with his wife. Teel was reported as having a criminal record and connections to the Ku Klux Klan. ==Killing==

On the evening of May 11, 1970, Henry Marrow and a number of friends were playing whist at the Tidewater Seafood Market, a popular location for young men in town. Just before 9 pm, Marrow left the Tidewater, telling friends that he planned to visit Teel's nearby shop in order to buy Fanny Chavis a Coca-Cola. Teel's 18-year-old son Larry, and Larry's wife Judy, were unpacking motorcycles in the parking lot. Marrow was said to make a remark, the content of which is disputed and unknown. Marrow told Larry Teel that he was speaking to two African-American women standing nearby, an explanation that Teel did not accept. When Teel tried to hit Marrow with a wooden block, Marrow drew a knife and slowly backed away. Edward Webb, a witness at the Tidewater, said that he and other young men tried to convince Marrow to leave before they ran themselves. Teel fired a second time, knocking Marrow to the ground; Oakley shot him twice with a shotgun. According to witness Evelyn Downey, the three men stood around Marrow kicking him, and Robert Teel shouted, "Shoot the son of a bitch, shoot the son of bitching nigger." Chavis testified that Larry Teel shot Marrow. ==Aftermath==

The Marrow killing was a catalyst to demonstrations related to the Civil Rights Movement in Granville County, six years after the passage of major federal legislation to end segregation and five years after a law to enforce voting rights. On the day of Marrow's funeral, mourners marched from the gravesite to the Confederate monument at the county courthouse in Downtown Oxford, where leaders spoke about the killing. A similar march was held the next day. Arson was committed against white businesses. The burning of several warehouses and shops was estimated to have caused $1 million in damages. Rumors flew that Vietnam veterans had been responsible for the arson. Because of the civil unrest related to the murder, the city established a four-day curfew. After the murder trial, Benjamin Chavis, a young local civil rights organizer and leader of the local chapter of the NAACP, led a protest march from Oxford to the state capital. Then, he and other black people conducted a "boycott of white businesses that lasted 18 months" and finally achieved full integration in Oxford. In 1972 the Herald-Journal reported that a witness said that Chavis had allegedly offered to pay $5,000 for the death of one of the Teels. Henry Marrow's grave is marked with a military headstone showing his name, rank and state, date of birth and death, and the word "Vietnam." Sources disagree as to whether he had served there. ==Book and film==

Timothy Tyson, a childhood friend of Teel's younger son who was living in Oxford during those years, earned a doctorate and became an historian. He published Blood Done Sign My Name (2004) about the killing of Marrow, the trial, and their effects on Oxford, North Carolina and the civil rights movement. It recounted the events of Marrow's killing and related them to broader social issues of the time and the racial history of the area. The book was adapted as a 2010 film of the same name, written and directed by Jeb Stuart. Filmed in several cities in North Carolina, it starred Ricky Schroder, Nate Parker, and Nick Searcy. It was also adapted as a play of the same name, which premiered at Duke University in 2008. ==Notes==