William Zantzinger

Until I read this article today, I was unaware of the events in early 1963 that were memorialized by Bob Dylan with the song entitled "the lonesome death of Hattie Carroll." At the time, 24-year-old William Zantzinger was sentenced to six months in jail for manslaughter. He struck a barmaid in his drunken impatience, a blow which led to her death only a few hours later. According to teacherken, Zantzinger died January 3, 2009, just shy of the 45th anniversary of Hattie Carroll's death.

Reading the diary entry from teacherken at Daily Kos -- I was struck by three things:

1. Dylan's timeless defiance of the institution that would promote disparity and discrimination
2. teacherken's catch of Zantzinger's ironic quote, stating that he would not want to attend school with "negroes" -- Zantzinger attended Sidwell Friends, the D.C.-area school newly attended by President-Elect Obama's daughters, Malia and Sasha
3. The article's closing words: "William Zanzinger will never die. Bob Dylan has guaranteed a legacy in words and music, one which should remind us that this one death is about more than one person: it is about America as a society."