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What does Dudley Randall attempt to accomplish with his poem "Ballad of Birmingham"?

in his poem “Ballad of Birmingham," Dudley Randall creates a memorial for four young girls and a reminder of the violent race relations in America during the 1960’s. He accomplishes this by writing the poem as a dialogue between a mother and daughter prior to the 1963 bombing of the Seventeenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.


The little girl in the poem requests her mother's permission to participate in the Civil Rights march taking...

in his poem “Ballad of Birmingham," Dudley Randall creates a memorial for four young girls and a reminder of the violent race relations in America during the 1960’s. He accomplishes this by writing the poem as a dialogue between a mother and daughter prior to the 1963 bombing of the Seventeenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.


The little girl in the poem requests her mother's permission to participate in the Civil Rights march taking place on that Sunday, but her mother, who is concerned for her child’s safety, does not allow her to go. Instead, the mother tells her to go to church to sing with the choir, thinking it will be a safer environment for the child. The author demonstrates the concern of the mother for her child during this tumultuous time. Unbeknownst to her, it is the last conversation she will have with her little girl.



“No, baby, no, you may not go,


For I fear those guns will fire.


But you may go to church instead


And sing in the children’s choir.”



The mother- daughter pair signify, not only the four mothers who lost their daughters that day, but they represent all who tried to shelter their children from the effects of racial prejudice.


Dudley Randall is able to create a permanent memorial to the girls, and a reminder of strife created by racial prejudice during the Civil Rights movement in America during the 1960’s.

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