Background
Henry "Dickie" Marrow was born to Henry D. Marrow, Sr. and Ivey Hunt Marrow on January 7, 1947. His parents separated early on, and, when Henry, Sr. died in a violent quarrel, Ivey Marrow could not provide for her son alone. As his mother was working in New Jersey, Marrow lived with his mother's parents in Oxford during his childhood. He moved in with the Chavis family during his adolescence while he attended Mary Potter High School. After his graduation, Marrow, Jr. 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. According to a 2004 book by Timothy Tyson documenting Marrow's death, Marrow did not like Army life and was unwilling to fight in Vietnam, for which reason he often sneaked home, 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 veteran. According to Tyson, Marrow did not serve there. After he was discharged, he moved back to Oxford.
He started working at Umstead Hospital in Butner, North Carolina. He and Willie May Sidney had two daughters together, and she was pregnant with a third when her husband was killed in 1970.
Despite passage of federal civil rights legislation, Oxford in 1970 was still largely a segregated community.
Robert Teel was the owner of a local store who was at the time of Marrow's death being boycotted by the local black community for beating a local black schoolteacher who had gotten into an argument with his wife. Tyson reports that Teel had a criminal record and connections to the KKK.
Read more about this topic: Killing Of Henry Marrow
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