I think that this song is an example of how what we perceive as positive strides in history can turn back and really not be accurate when given real examples.
In 1963, history tells us that the sixties were a time of strides in the movements towards equality and civil rights. A student of this history would be inclined to think that mentality was changing throughout the country so that senseless crimes like the murder of Hattie Carroll would be on the decline, and even if they weren't, fair and progressive juries would prevail in the trial.
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll is the reality of what was happening. Minds may have been changing in response to equality but this is the grim truth that hate and racism wasnt making as much progress as the history books might have liked to show.
The sat truth is something like this might still be able to happen in the US. Research has proven that if a drunk driver were to hit a white man, his sentence would be more time than if he were to hit a black man. The same principle applies here to what Dylan is writing about. The sad but real truth.
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