Desolation Row
They’re selling postcards of the hanging…
I recently learned where the opening line from Dylan’s apocalyptic juggernaut of a song came from… and it ain’t pretty.
1920, Duluth Minnesota, Birthplace of Bob Dylan. A white teenager accuses three black men of forcing him to watch them rape his girlfriend. A mob of over 2,000 people hung the three black men from a lamppost at First Street and Second Avenue East. The teenager eventually admits that he’d made up the whole story.
…2003… 83 years after the fact… the town of Duluth erects a memorial to the three murdered men.
As were many early history events, this photo was printed and circulated on postcards, hence the lyric.
Like how the white folk gather round and smile to the camera?
