Essay On Ballad Of Birmingham

Ballad of Birmingham
The Ballad of Birmingham was written by Dudley Randall in 1963. It was written after the bombing of a church on September 15, 1963 (16th Street Baptist Church Bombing). This bombing took place at a church in Birmingham, Alabama. The church was getting ready for their Sunday congregation. In the basement, five young girls were chatting in their best Sunday clothes (16th Street Baptist Church Bombing). The girls were filled with excitement. That Sunday was when the youth was going to participate in the adult service.
When the clock struck 11 and the congregation stood to pray, a bomb went off in the basement (16th Street Baptist Church Bombing). The five girls who were getting ready for the service were still in the basement. As the adults took cover, the girls were being buried under debris. Four out of the five girls died in the basement of the church (16th Street Baptist Church Bombing). The one girl who survived became permanently

“The mother smiled to know her child / Was in the sacred place,” says the mother in line 21 and 22. The mother did not know she would never see her child again. She heard the explosion and ran through the streets of Birmingham. She was racing to get to her child. When she got to the church, “She clawed through bits of glass and brick, / Then lifted out a shoe.”(Randall 29-30). She found her daughter’s shoe, but she could not find her daughter.
I believe that Randall used irony in his poem. He writes about the mother and daughter conversing about the freedom march in Birmingham, Alabama. The daughter wants to go downtown to join the march. The mother does not allow her to go, for she believes it is unsafe for her child. Instead, she allows her daughter to go to church. The church is supposed to be a sanctuary for everyone. The daughter starts to get ready in her white clothes. The white symbolizes innocence and