The Story Behind Medgar Evers

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In “Only a Pawn in Their Game,” Dylan mirrors each stanza to state a problem with the social upbringing of each white male that furthers the racial prejudice in the United States. In the South, racism is instilled in young children trained “like a dog on a chain,” supported by the authorities before 1964, based on the false notion of white superiority over African Americans, and used “to keep up his hate so he never thinks straight” (Dylan 52,39-40). The repeating couplets at the end of each stanza as well as the abrupt changes in tempo emphasize the powerful message of the song. With Medgar Evers’ murder as the catalyst for the song, Bob Dylan masterfully crafted the lyrics of “Only a Pawn in Their Game” into a unique art form to question the origins of the major social issue of racial discrimination and inequality.

Medgar Evers also served as an inspiration to Phil Ochs in his song co-written with Bob Gibson “Ballad of Medgar Evers,” later titled “Too Many Martyrs.” A topical folk singer of the 1960s, Ochs first performed this song at the Newport Folk Festival in the summer of 1963 shortly after Evers’ murder (Klass 16). In the opening stanza, Ochs references Emmet Till, a fourteen year old African American who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 for supposedly flirting with a married white woman and whose body was later retrieved from a river. Similar to Medgar Evers’ case of murder, Till’s “color was his crime.” However, unlike Evers who devoted his life to protesting racial discrimination which gained him attention in the public eye, Till was a common, African American child innocently conversing with a white woman (Ochs 3). Till’s death shocked the public especially due to his age and served as a notorious example of the barbarism that stems from a sense of racial superiority. Similar to Evers, Till’s killers were both acquitted by an all-white jury. Both Evers and Till were martyrs of the civil rights movement along with “thousands more whose names we’ll never know” but Ochs argues that even one is “too many dead” in his repeating chorus (Ochs 10, 5).

Unlike Dylan who argues that society is at fault for Evers’ death, Ochs states that the “country gained a killer and the country lost a man” but only mentions once that racism was behind Evers and Till’s deaths (Ochs 28). The verses primarily describe the failed attempts to kill Evers, the details of Beckwith’s heartless assassination, as well as Evers’ funeral shortly before the passage of the Civil Rights Act, “the victory” (Ochs 26). Also dissimilar to “Only a Pawn in Their Game,” Ochs’ song does not delve into the notion of discrimination amongst the white population but sticks to the overarching theme of waiting for equal freedoms for blacks and whites. “Balled of Medgar Evers” is actually a very hopeful song despite its descriptions of murder. Ochs hopes that America as a whole can move past this time of civil upheaval and discrimination in which minorities are made martyrs for their opposing beliefs. He focuses on the lessons that society should take away from the unnecessary deaths of African Americans standing up for the same rights bestowed on white American citizens. The insightful lyrics, earnest humanism, and powerful political statements implemented by Phil Ochs make “Ballad of Medgar Evers” a song with important lessons of justice, equality, and peace.

Works Cited

Dylan, Bob. “Only a Pawn in Their Game.” The Times They Are a-Changin’.

Columbia, 1964. Web.

Klass, Judy. Phil Ochs. Nashville: Vanderbilt University, 16 April. 2016. PDF.

Ochs, Phil. “Ballad of Medgar Evers.” Live at Newport. Vanguard, 1964. Web.

Williams, Michael Vinson. Medgar Evers: Mississippi Martyr. Fayetteville:

University of Arkansas, 2011. Print.