William Zantzinger

Jan 22 2009 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

THERE is some resonance today, in the wake of celebrations for Barack Obama, in writing about an American tobacco farmer from south Maryland, who would have remained unrecorded by history had it not been for one drunken night.

He arrived like a dandy at a charity ball in his top hat, white tie and tails, but he was carrying a lot of booze and continued drinking, impatient for more.

And when Hattie Carroll, the 51-year-old barmaid in a Baltimore hotel, said she was serving as fast as she could, William Zantzinger struck her with his dress cane, rebuking her with words not used these days.

Deeply hurt and distressed, Hattie Carroll, a mother of 11 and a respected member of the black community, died in hospital from a massive stroke. After hitting her, Zantzinger continued behaving in an abusive manner, lashing out at other guests, including his wife.

A powerfully built man of 6ft 2ins, he was charged with murder. But when medical evidence suggested it was Hattie Carroll’s stressed reaction to the incident, rather than the blow itself, which had caused the intercranial bleeding, the charge was reduced to manslaughter and assault. On August 28, 1963, Zantzinger was convicted of both charges and sentenced to six months in prison, delayed for a couple of weeks, so he could harvest his tobacco crop.

By coincidence, on the same day, Martin Luther King was in Washington DC delivering his great “I Have A Dream” speech.

Some time after that, Bob Dylan, the emerging folk singer, read about the trial and wrote The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll, which became an anthem of the civil rights’ movement. It started, “Zantzinger killed poor Hattie Carroll, with a cane that he twirled around his diamond ring finger”, before reaching the soaring chorus, “But you who philosophise disgrace and criticise all fears, take the rag away from your face, now ain't the time for your tears.”

Despite it all, Zantzinger, a father of three, joined the country club, entered real estate and became a pillar in the chamber of commerce. However, in 1991, his crooked property deals resulted in him being jailed for 18 months.

William Zantzinger, racist;born February 7, 1939,died January 3, 2009.