Tim Tyson marching in Selma, 2016

I am a historian, writer, activist, and teacher who studies the tangled roots of race, religion, and power in the American South. My work asks how we can confront our shared history honestly and use that truth to build a more just future.

I serve as a Senior Research Scholar at Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies and teach in the Department of American Studies at the University of North Carolina. In the classroom, I challenge students to connect the past with the present, to see history not as a collection of facts about a distant past but as an unfolding story in which we are still engaged. I write and teach always with a social and political purpose, an advocacy for something better, though I try not to put my thumb in the scale.

My books include Blood Done Sign My Name, Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power, Democracy Betrayed: The Wilmington Race Riot and Its Legacy, co-edited with David S. Cecelski, and The Blood of Emmett Till. Blood Done Sign My Name was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and received the Grawemeyer Award in Religion. The Blood of Emmett Till won the 2018 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award and was in the top ten for the National Book Award. A forthcoming book, Mahalia Jackson, Moving On Up a Little Higher: Story of a Civil Rights Pioneer, co-authored with gospel singer Mary D. Williams, will be published by W.W. Norton Publishers in August 2026.

I serve on the executive board of Repairers of the Breach, which is led by Bishop William J. Barber, II, with whom I have worked for twenty years now, and the UNC Center for Civil Rights.

Beyond my writing and teaching, I am a husband, father, and grandfather. My family keeps me grounded in love, humor, and the everyday work of care that gives meaning to everything else I do.

Hi, I’m Tim Tyson.

Get To know Me In Pictures Throughout Time.

  • A person standing at a podium speaking to an audience in a large room with a floral wreath hanging on the wall behind them.

    Teaching "The South in Black and White"

    Mary D. Williams and I taught "The South in Black and White: History, Politics and Culture along the Color Line in the 20th Century South. It had 300 students and met at the Hayti Heritage Center, which is in the old St. Joseph's AME Zion Church, the foremost civil rights church in Durham from the 1940s to the 1970s. We taught the course for 16 years.

  • A group of people gathered around a man in a white shirt and purple tie speaking at a podium. Some hold signs with messages like 'Protect Voting Rights' and 'Stop Voter Ejection.' There is a large yellow banner in the background with the words 'For the Advancement' visible.

    Tim with Reverend William Barber II

    Tim Tyson with Reverend William Barber II and the North Carolina NAACP chapter at a Moral Monday.

  • A crowd of people participating in a street protest or rally. One man in the center wearing a pink hat and blue shirt with yellow letters celebrating 'VOTE' is raising his arm, holding a piece of paper. Several women are visible around him, some also wearing pink hats, and the scene takes place in an urban setting with traffic lights and buildings in the background.

    At the Woman's March, 2017

    Tim Tyson and Perri Morgan at Women'sMarch in 2017.

  • Two men dressed in suits holding purple signs that say, "Every child deserves a great public education," with a heart icon and the website PublicSchoolsFirstNC.org in a park-like setting with trees and other people in the background.

    Tim Tyson and Irv Joyner, 2019

    Tim with Irv Joyner protesting at the North Carolina General Assembly. Irv is a law professor at North Carolina Central University and also serves as the Legal Counsel for the North Carolina State Branches of the NAACP.

  • Man in a suit speaking behind a podium at a book event, with books and posters in the background.

    The Blood of Emmett Till Book Tour

    Tim at the Regulator Bookshop forThe Blood of Emmett Till book tour, 2017

  • Six people, including two police officers and four civilians, are engaged in conversation and smiling in a room with beige walls. One man in a tan coat and the others in formal or casual attire.

    Wake County School Board protest

    Tyson was arrested on June 15, 2010 by Raleigh police on charges of second-degree trespassing. He, along with Bishop William J. Barber, II, then President of the North Carolina Chapter of the NAACP, and two others protested the Wake County school's decision to change its diversity policy, based on busing students to diversify the racial make-up of its schools. The movement ended up removing the entire slate of Tea Party re-segregationists on the Wake County school board.

  • Two men dressed as doctors at a protest or rally, embracing and raising their arms, surrounded by a crowd holding signs and banners.

    Tim Tyson and Dr. Charlie Van der Horst

    Tim Tyson and the late Dr. Charlie Van der Horst at a North Carolina General Assembly, 2013. Dr. Charlie Van der Horst was a UNC School of Medicine Professor and an internationally renowned HIV researcher.

  • Man in yellow shirt grilling chicken wings at outdoor barbecue with several people in the background

    At the Grill

    Tim works the grill to cook pig and chicken at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

  • Three people celebrating indoors, holding a sign that says 'Say It Loud Anita Earls NG Supreme Court' with their arms raised and smiling.

    Family, Happiness, and Politics

    Tim with his daughter, Hope, and and his wife, Perri, holding a handmade political poster.

  • An older man with curly gray hair and glasses is lying on a brown leather couch, reading a children's book titled 'Hustle and Hustle.' A young girl with short dark hair is lying on his back, smiling, while a younger child with light brown hair and a colorful striped hoodie is sitting next to him, looking at the book. There is a piano with sheet music in the background and a chair with a bag and books on top.

    Tim, a.k.a "Da"

    Tim teaching Yertle the Turtle to his granddaughters, Ruby and Isabel Cintron-Tyson.

  • An elderly man with curly white hair and glasses holding a young child with curly hair, both smiling outdoors with trees and a house in the background.

    Tim with granddaughter Ruby, 2023.

“It baffles me that people think that obliterating the past will save them from its consequences, as if throwing away the empty cake plate would help you lose weight.”

— Timothy B. Tyson, Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story