Blowin' in the Wind

Although the poem uses figurative or symbolic language, the historical context links the poem to the American civil rights movement. Dylan released “Blowin’ in the Wind” in 1963 when Black people and their allies vehemently protested the ongoing injustices and dehumanization occurring in the United States. Many white people did not see Black people as equals, and Black people lacked the basic freedom and legal protections that most white people received. Segregation persisted and was still codified into law in many parts of the United States, and people could kill and harass Black people with relative impunity. In 1955, a pair of white men in Mississippi brutally murdered a Black teen boy, Emmett Till, for allegedly whistling at a white woman. An all-white jury declared the two men charged with the crime not guilty. A year later, the men confessed to the crime and sold their story since they could not face prosecution for the same crime twice.

Dylan wrote a specific song about Emmett, “The Death of Emmett Till” (1962), and while “Blowin’ in the Wind” does not specifically mention Till or any other horrible incident, the questions about society’s inequality and brutality represent the civil rights movement and the battle for fairness.