Dudley Randall's Poem 'Ballad Of Birmingham'

When I first saw the title, "Ballad of Birmingham" I thought that this poem is going to be about the city of Birmingham and how beautiful it is. Then I saw what was beneath the title which said, "On the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963." I now know that the poem is going to be about a bombing, something I know but the characters don't. That sentence also tells me it takes place in 1963 which is around the time of the civil rights movement.

If they need medical assistance, they cannot go to the same hospital as whites. When they die, they are buried in different cemeteries. Families of color are forced to bring up their children in a humiliating and insulting atmosphere. The state and authorities, as one of social factors, support the racism. The clear examples were dishonest courts and cruel, inhuman actions of the police. Promises to restore justice and equalize the rights of white and colored residents do not mean anything. Church leadership prefers to stay aside the civil problems. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” clearly shows that the church acts in a cowardly manner concerning the issue of racism, supporting the state law, but not the moral one, which claims that all men are brothers. Such a mechanism of society does not function properly because all of its elements are deformed. The deformation is caused by the pressure of state authorities and lack of justice, which was caused by the social conflict. Birmingham can be called a hot spot, where the conflict between the white and colored population was on the brink between the peaceful actions and open battles. The long-lasting conflict influenced the symbolic interactionism. This theory shows that social interaction is based not on the way human beings sense their environment, but on the way they define the environment and each other. In this situation, the colored

Birmingham, Alabama during the 1960’s was experiencing a time of high racial tension and injustice for African Americans. Blacks were only allowed to sit in specific areas in buses and restaurants, and they had separate water fountains, churches, schools, and other public gathering areas. In 1963, the African American demonstrators began “sitting in” at lunch counters that had not served blacks before and picketed stores that did not allow blacks to shop in them. Soon after, African Americans began getting arrested for trespassing. The civil rights leaders applied for permits to picket and parade but were denied, and this sparked the thought that the law prohibiting African Americans to picket and parade was unjust and they decided to disobey it. This led to certain opinions about the Civil Rights Movement to arise and become public. Eight Alabama white clergymen, who represented various churches, wrote “A Call for Unity: A Letter from Eight White Clergymen” in response to the protests that had broken out across Birmingham (“Unity”). Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and sent to jail in 1963 because he and others were protesting the treatment of African Americans. He went on to write “A Letter from Birmingham Jail” as he waited, hunched over, in his jail cell (“Birmingham”). Both the clergymen and Dr. King used the art of argument to try to persuade people to believe their views on the issue.

The author, Dudley Randall, illustrates the conflict and irony between the mother and her child. The mother only wants to protect her child from the dangers that await her, but the child on the other hand, only wants to be a part of the Freedom March in Birmingham, Alabama. “The Ballad of Birmingham” was written about the real life events of the bombing that took place in Birmingham, Alabama at the church of Martin Luther King, Jr by white terrorists. Though the bombing was tragic and resulted in the death of four innocent African American girls and injuring fourteen

The 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing on September 15, 1963 has been one of the most historic bombing in the African American community. Since then, the Spike Lee’s Four Little Girls film and the poem, Ballad of Birmingham, have been created to commemorate the event and the loss of the four beautiful young girls. Both have received awards for their outstanding and thoughtful works that both artist put into their projects. The movie, Four Little Girls, was a very stimulating movie because it was not your typical scripted play. It was a documentary of all the family, friends, and community that were affected by this event. On the other hand, the poem, Ballad of Birmingham, was very eye opening because it put a new perspective of the church bombing.

Said Martin Luther King Jr. after the Birmingham Bombing (“16th Street Baptist Church”). The 1963 Birmingham Church Bombing was a devastating event. Lives were lost and you were defined by your skin color.

“But you may go to church instead” (Randall,15) a mother thought her child would be safer in such a sacred place rather than being a part of the march that just might have been safer. The poem “Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall, has multiple themes, but the one that sticks out is violence, which is because it is so powerful and brings the whole poem together. There is also a lot of imagery shown through this whole poem that can put a horrible picture in your head because of how sad the poem really is.

In 1963 a bomb went of in a church in Birmingham that killed 4 little girls. And a poem called ‘Ballad of Birmingham’ (written in 1969), and states some things that happened that day. In stanza 5 the author writes “She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair. And bathered rose petal sweet, And drawn white gloves an her small brown hands, and white shoes on her feet. This discribes on of the young black

In 1963, four children were killed in the bombing of Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Martin Luther King and Eugene Patterson both delivered eulogies after the deaths of Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Cynthia Diane Wesley, and Carole Robertson. The death of these children were not in vain. They aided Congress to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Both eulogies have sentiments of hope and responsibility and use repetition.

In 'Ballad of Birmingham,' Dudley Randall illustrates a conflict between a child who wishes to march for civil rights and a mother who wishes only to protect her child. Much of this poem is read as dialogue between a mother and a child, a style which gives it an intimate tone and provides insight to the feelings of the characters. Throughout the poem the child is eager to go into Birmingham and march for freedom with the people there. The mother, on the other hand, is very adamant that the child should not go because it is dangerous. It is obvious that the child is concerned about the events surrounding the march and wants to be part of the movement. The child expresses these feelings in a way

Following the campaign, various civil rights leaders met with some of Birmingham’s local business owners, and came to an agreement to desegregate Birmingham’s downtown shops and offer equal employment under a basis of “nondiscrimination,” while Birmingham city leaders agreed to release all arrested demonstrators from Birmingham jails (Birmingham Desegregation Campaign”). In addition, the worldwide outrage sparked by the Birmingham Campaign was one of the leading motivations for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, in which discrimination of any type based on race, color, gender, national origin, or religion was outlawed. Ultimately, the Birmingham campaign laid the foundation for a future of racial justice in the

In the poem “Ballad of Birmingham”, by Dudley Randall, many different things can be analyzed. The difference in the two translations; one being a literal translation, telling the true meaning of the poem, and the other being a thematic translation, which tells the author’s theme and symbolism used in his/her work. Another thing that all poets have in common is the usage of poetic devices; such as similes, metaphors, and personification.

     The Ballad of Birmingham resembles a traditional ballad in that it tells a story in a song-like manner. The didactic tone seeks to teach us something; in this case it’s the theme of needless destruction. There are many devices the author uses to create such a tone and to tell such a story.

Dudley Randall’s “Ballad of Birmingham” is a look into the effects of racism on a personal level. The poem is set in Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. The tone of the title alludes to the city of Birmingham as a whole. The poem gives the reader, instead, a personal look into a tragic incident in the lives of a mother and her daughter. The denotation of the poem seems to simply tell of the sadness of a mother losing her child. The poem’s theme is one of guilt, irony, and the grief of losing a child. The mother feels responsible for the death of her child. The dramatic irony of the mother’s view of church as being a “safe haven” for her child is presented to the reader through the mother’s insistence that the young girl

During the 1960s, Birmingham was the supreme racially divided cities in the United States. With the forty percent of the African-American population in, but there was clear racial divide with 10,000 were black out of 80,000 registered voters. African Americans, was the victim of segregationist policies. The city was suffering with the segregation and the political authorities were documented for their antagonistic and ferocious behavior against blacks. During years of 1957 and 1962, several homes and 17 “Black Churches” was bombed. An American Civil Rights campaigner, Shufilesworth home was also targeted. SCLC member and Birmingham minister Fred Shufilesworth on May 1962 suggested