Song Lyrics: Assassination and Murder Part 1

Black History is documented in many ways and many forms of music and literature: opera, movies, film documentaries, word of mouth, TV, books, poetry, etc. Several genres and styles of music portray Black History: work songs, field hollers, delta blues, jazz, R&B, pop, soul, reggae, calypso, gospel, rap, and hip hop.

After the assassination of MLK in 1968, poignant tributes in music and song poured out about our nation’s tragic loss. Nina Simone wrote and sang Why (The King of Love Is Dead). She also had a powerful emotional hit titled Mississippi Goddam. Marvin Gaye had a huge hit with Abraham, Martin, and John, written about assassinated U.S. Presidents’ Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. Many musicians did covers of the song and sang it all over the world.

The previous poems in this month’s series were about murders of Black Americans by white racists. A popular folk rock musician back then, Bob Dylan wrote songs about racial murders. Here is one:

The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll

By BOB DYLAN

(on Dylan’s 1964 album The Time’s They Are A Changing)

William Zanzinger killed poor Hattie Carroll

With a cane that he twirled around his diamond ring finger

At a Baltimore hotel society gatherin’

And the cops were called in and his weapon took from him

As they rode him in custody down to the station

And booked William Zanzinger for first degree murder.

(Chorus)

But you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears

Take the rag away from your face, Now ain’t the time for your tears

William Zanzinger, who at twenty-four years

Owns a tobacco farm of six hundred acres

With rich wealthy parents who provide and protect him

And high office relations in the politics of Maryland

Reacted to his deed with a shrug of his shoulders

And swear words and sneering and his tongue it was snarling

In a matter of minutes on bail was out walking

Hattie Carroll was a maid in the kitchen

She was fifty-one years old and gave birth to ten children

Who carried the dishes and took out the garbage

And never sat once at the head of the table

And emptied the ashtrays on a whole other level

Got killed by a blow, lay slain by a cane

That sailed through the air and came down through the room

Doomed and determined to destroy all the gentle

And she never done nothing to William Zanzinger

In the courtroom of honor, the judge pounded his gavel

To show that all’s equal and that the laws on the level

And that the strings in the books ain’t pulled and persuaded

And that even the nobles get properly handled

Once that the cops have chased after and caught ‘em

And that the ladder of law has no top and no bottom

Stared at the person who killed for no reason

Who just happened to be feelin’ that way without warnin’

And he spoke through his cloak, most deep and distinguished

And handed out strongly, for penalty and repentance

William Zanzinger with a six-month sentence

(Chorus)

Oh but you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears

Bury the rag deep in your face – For now’s the time for your tears.

Part Two is a song about the assassination of Medgar Evers, who was a pioneering civil rights leader and the NAACP’s first field secretary in the state of Mississippi.

Black History Month

Joey aka “Pepe Batbon” Connolly is a retired educator who taught in the CNMI, NOLA, and LVNV. He is the Poet Laureate of Tinian and enjoys stargazing.