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Timothy B. Tyson Quotes

Unjust social orders do not fall merely by appeals to the consciences of the oppressor, though such appeals may be an important element; history teaches us that they fall because a large enough number of people organize

Unjust social orders do not fall merely by appeals to the consciences of the oppressor, though such appeals may be an important element; history teaches us that they fall because a large enough number of people organize a movement powerful enough to push them down. Rarely do such revolutions emerge in a neat and morally pristine process.

Timothy B. Tyson
Powerful, Fall, Order
Timothy B. Tyson (2007). “Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story”, p.317, Broadway Books

It appeared clear to me - partly because of the lies that filled my history textbooks - that the intent of formal education was to inculcate obedience to a social order that did not deserve my loyalty. Defiance seemed the only dignified response to the adult world.

Timothy B. Tyson
Loyalty, Lying, Order
Timothy B. Tyson (2007). “Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story”, p.275, Broadway Books

If there is to be reconciliation, first there must be truth.

Timothy B. Tyson
Firsts, Ifs, Reconciliation
Timothy B. Tyson (2004). “Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story”, Crown Pub

We are runaway slaves from our own past, and only by turning to face the hounds can we find our freedom beyond them.

Timothy B. Tyson
Past, Faces, Slave
Timothy B. Tyson (2004). “Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story”, Crown Pub

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
Past, Thinking, Cake

We cherish the conventional story of Dr. King and nonviolence, in fact, precisely because that narrative demands so little of us…This conventional narrative is soothing, moving, and politically acceptable, and has only the disadvantage of bearing no resemblance to what actually happened.

Timothy B. Tyson
Kings, Moving, Demand

In the years since his murder, we have transformed King into a kind of innocuous black Santa Claus.

Timothy B. Tyson
Kings, Years, Black
Timothy B. Tyson (2007). “Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story”, p.107, Broadway Books

In a fallen world marked by human depravity and deep-seated sin, in a world where Hitler and Stalin had recruited millions of followers to commit mass murder, love must harness power and seek justice in order to have moral meaning. Love without power remained impotent, and power without love was bankrupt.

Timothy B. Tyson
Order, Justice, Fallen World
Timothy B. Tyson (2007). “Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story”, p.67, Broadway Books

The Lord works through deeply flawed people, since He made so few of the other kind.

Timothy B. Tyson
People, Kind, Lord
Timothy B. Tyson (2007). “Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story”, p.8, Broadway Books

Every minister worthy of the name has to walk the line between prophetic vision and spiritual sustenance, between telling people the comforting things they want to hear and challenging them with the difficult things they need to hear. In Oxford, Daddy began to feel as though all the members wanted him to do was to marry them and bury them and stay away from their souls.

Timothy B. Tyson
Spiritual, Names, Oxford
Timothy B. Tyson (2007). “Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story”, p.16, Broadway Books

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