He explores the 1970 murder of Henry D. Marrow, a black man in Tyson's then hometown of Oxford, North Carolina.

"[2] The book explores the effects of the 1970 killing of Henry Marrow, a 23-year-old black Vietnam War veteran in Oxford, North Carolina.

In addition, they conducted an 18-month boycott of white businesses in Oxford, a mostly segregated town, to force integration in public facilities.

The Marrow case helped galvanize continued African-American civil rights activities in Oxford and across the eastern North Carolina black belt.

The Marrow killing and related events radicalized the African-American freedom struggle in North Carolina, which was trying to gain progress after the successful passage of civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s.

He explores not only the white supremacy of the South's racial caste system but his personal and family stories.

It's a detached dissertation, a damning dark-night-of-the-white-soul, and a ripping yarn, all united by Tyson's powerful voice, a brainy, booming Bubba profundo."

Historian Jane Dailey, writing in the Chicago Tribune, called it "Admirable and unexpected... a riveting story that will have its readers weeping with both laughter and sorrow."