The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll

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During the height of the Civil Rights Movement Bob Dylan wrote a song called “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” In which he describes the killing of a woman named Hattie Carroll at the hands of a man named William Zanzinger. In this paper will be discussed the events that occurred to inspirer Bob Dylan to write the song, and also the impact his song has had. In addition go over the differences between now and back in 1963 and all the changes since the Civil Rights Movement. On February 9, 1963 there was an event being held named the Spinster’s Ball located at the Emerson hotel in Baltimore, Maryland. Arriving at this social gathering was 24 years old William Devereux “Billy” Zantzinger. William Zantzinger, who was already heavily intoxicated before arriving at the hotel, had a cane with him. “Zantzinger downed two fast drinks at the bar, then whacked the restaurant's hostess and its elderly sommelier with a wooden carnival cane that he had picked up somewhere.” (1) The entire evening he was drunkenly hitting people with this cane, a 25 cent item he purchased for his amusement. Earlier that evening Zantzinger was hitting workers at a restaurant named the Eager House, before going to the hotel. While he was at the hotel he was extremely drunk, being very disrespectful to many people and hitting workers and partygoers. Zantzinger was using many racial slurs at workers, calling them “Nigger”. One of the barmaids there was 51 years old Hattie Carroll. Zantzinger, who felt Carroll was not bringing his drinks in a timely fashion, began swearing and using racial slurs at Carroll. Then Zantzinger started to strike Carroll his cane. After one hard blow to the head, Carroll had to be brought into the kitchen by her coworkers. Hattie Carroll stated that she felt deathly ill, she said that her arm was feeling numb. Her speech became slow and her words were slurring

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