Analysis Of Ballad Of Birmingham By Dudley Randall

Imagine a time in American history brimming with violence and hatred between races. Some might think of the nineteenth century, and the years leading up to the civil war, however there is another time period that can be addressed. This is the time period in the 1950s and 1960s, when the African American Civil Rights Movement was at its most powerful. These years were filled with racial contempt and bloodshed, and these were also the years in which Dudley Randall published one of his most famous works, “Ballad of Birmingham.” Written in 1969, “Ballad of Birmingham” is written about the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that took place in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963, which took the lives of four African American girls. In this poem, Randall

uses the historical context of the 1960s and social context of the African American Civil Rights Movement to help the reader to better understand just how bad relations were between races in 1963 and the years after, as well as show how these events and other events of this time period influenced literature.
One of the best ways to understand the context in which “Ballad of Birmingham” was written is to look at the newspaper article from the day that the 16th Street Church bombing occurred. Everything from the language used by the author to the news that he wrote about discloses information about the time period and social environment of that period. The writer reports about the bombing, and the casualties from it, “A bomb severely damaged a Negro church today during Sunday school services, killing four Negro girls and setting off racial riots and other violence in which two Negro boys were shot to death” (Sells 1). The words that Sells uses in his article is one of the first things that defines the context in which it was written, and just how different it is from the present day. Words such as “negro” are seen as derogatory in the present day, but were thought of as the correct term to describe African Americans during this time period in history. The riots and other casualties set into motion from the bombing also increase the idea that this time period was dangerous. Later in the article Sells speaks of how Alabama Governor George Wallace offered a reward for the arrest and conviction of the bombers, but then tells the readers that “None of the 50 bombings of Negro property here since World War II have been solved” (1). The fact that there had been 50 bombings in Birmingham, Alabama alone combined with news that not a single one had been solved by authorities just goes to show just how dangerous it was for African Americans at the time “Ballad of Birmingham” was placed in.
Another great way to learn and understand the context in which the events of “Ballad of Birmingham” took place is to look at the article “The Past on Trial: Birmingham, the Bombing, and Restorative Justice,” by S.

Willoughby Anderson. This article describes the events of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing from another perspective, and talks about the conviction of two of the bombers which took place in 2001 and 2002, nearly 40 years after the incident originally occurred. In the second part of the article that begins on page 478, Anderson begins to write about the bombing. He explains what happened, and included information about other African American children killed in the violence caused by the outrage at this attack. He writes that “The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing capped a year of escalating white resistance to desegregation” (Anderson 478-479), which is another source that expresses just how dangerous the context “Ballad of Birmingham” is placed in. Anderson later goes on to write that the bombing was one of the first attacks that white newspapers and the mainstream media actually reported on. “Other key locations of the movement, such as activists’ homes and other churches, had been bombed, but most of those bombings were never reported by the white-owned newspapers” (Anderson 480), which revealed that a large amount of the racial conflict happening in Birmingham during this time was unknown by the majority of the public outside of Birmingham. After

this, Anderson writes about the response the bombing claimed from city officials and residents due to its publicity. He writes, “The residents of Birmingham responded with shock and horror. Editorials and city leaders expressed their grief, and the local paper reported that Mayor Boutwell wept. Demanding the death penalty for those responsible, Governor Wallace called the bombing, ‘the most dastardly crime ever committed in Alabama,’ while local white ministers asked every citizen to pray in remembrance” (Anderson 480-481). This article, while also expressing the danger for African Americans living in Birmingham, also described the importance of the bombing, as it was one of the first major attacks that gained a large amount of media attention. The event “Ballad of Birmingham” was written about helped the Civil Rights Movement, although at a great price.
The funeral of three of the girls killed in the bombing were eulogized by Martin Luther King Jr., one of the most important and famous leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. The eulogy that he wrote for and spoke at the funeral is another exceptional piece of writing to look at to learn about the bombing and the time period in which it happened. While eulogies are supposed to be respectful to the deceased, Martin Luther King Jr. does this while also explaining to those listening what exactly the deaths of the girls meant to not only himself, but also to those fighting for their rights alongside him, and does a wonderful job painting a metaphorical picture of what life was like in this time period. He writes that in their deaths,
They have something to say to every minister of the gospel who has remained silent behind the safe security of stained glass windows ... to every politician who has fed his constituents the stale bread of hatred and spoiled meat of racism … to a federal government that has compromised with the undemocratic practices of southern Dixiecrats and blatant hypocrisy of right-wing northern Republicans … to every Negro who passively accepts the evil system of segregation, and stands passively on the sidelines in the midst of a mighty struggle for justice. (King 1-2)
With this statement King addresses a large part of what he felt was wrong with how America treated segregation, and reveals how some people really felt and acted towards segregation and the fight against it. King tells about the corruption and blatant disregard for the Civil Rights movement from not only people in power, but also from the people that were affected by segregation every day. This passage describes the racism of Dixiecrats in power, who were southern Democrats against the Civil Rights Movement, and the hypocrisy of right-wing Republicans, who said they supported the Civil Rights Movement, but often did nothing to help against Dixiecrats. King’s eulogy for the funeral of the children killed in the 16th Street Church bombing displays the social environment of 1963 as one full of hatred, racism, and hypocrisy in America’s leaders.
Dudley Randall, the author of “Ballad of Birmingham,” lived through the heighth of the African American Civil Rights movement. In an interview between him and Lena Ampadu called “The Message Is in the Melody: An Interview With Dudley Randall,” Randall is asked about events in his lifetime that shaped his writing. To this Randall stated that “I believe that the age shapes the writer. World War II, I think, was the big event that shaped me” (442), and that “Probably the liberation movement of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s has influenced black writers today” (442). While the Civil Rights Movement was not Randall’s main source of influence, most likely due to the fact that he was well beyond the most impressionable years of his life, the Civil Rights Movement along with the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was the inspiration for his “Ballad of Birmingham.” Randall also talked about the Black Arts Movement, which was created due to the Civil Rights Movement, and how the sense of community within them and other black writers helped to keep not only him motivated, but others as well. Randall said “Yes there was a sense of community among us black writers, especially those in the Black Arts Movement. Hoyt Fuller was very important, although he didn’t write much himself. He was the editor of Black World, which was very influential because it encouraged black writers to write” (442). This article shows how Dudley Randall believes himself and others were influenced by the African American Civil Rights Movement, and shows examples of some important events that took place in the the 1960s, furthering the information known about the historical and social context of “Ballad of Birmingham.”
One other article that talks about Randall’s life and when he wrote “Ballad of Birmingham” is “Dudley Randall: A Humanist View,” written by D. H. Melhem. In his article, Melhem mainly focuses on Randall’s life and many of his works other than “Ballad of Birmingham.” In the section where he does talk about the poem though, he explains what Randall concentrated the poem on and how he wrote it, also talking about the lesson the poem taught. “In the poem Randall focuses upon one child, personalizing both the horror and its context” (Melhem 162), and “The murder, as if too terrible for description and thus augmented by mystery, powerfully registers in this vignette of maternal terror. The poem conveys the dreadful lesson: No place is sacred or safe in such a time and place” (Melhem 162). The time and place that Melhem refers to is Birmingham, Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement, as the city was sometimes seen as the epicenter of the movement and therefore the target for many violent and terroristic attacks against those supporting the it. This article serves to give another point of view on just how dangerous the historical context of “Ballad of Birmingham” really was.
The Black Arts Movement, as mentioned before, was an important influence for African American writers during the time period of the 1960s such as Dudley Randall among many others. The article “Blackface and the Black Arts Movement,” written by Mike Sell, explains what exactly the Black Arts Movement and their goals were, and a few examples of actions they took during the Civil Rights Movement to achieve those goals. Sell writes, “The Black Arts Movement (BAM) was a radical, Afrocentric cultural movement whose participants sought to transform the political, economic, and cultural conditions of African Americans and oppressed people around the world during a particularly volatile moment in the history of racist imperialism” (143). The group accomplished many things in the period of time seen as their “most visible period, 1965-1974” (Sells 143), such as institutions focused on helping African Americans, “numberless community events” (Sells 143), and a large body of literature. These activities and accomplishments are most often given credit for influencing a large number of African Americans to take interest in literature, and were a huge factor in the social and historical context in which “Ballad of Birmingham” was written.
A final example of writing that examines “Ballad of Birmingham” is the article “Integrating Poetry and To Kill a Mockingbird,” by Susan Arpajian Jolley.

Jolley writes about her experience using the novel To Kill a Mockingbird to teach students about history and to look at the world from different perspectives. To do this, the author looks at many different pieces of literature that she believed could teach students to look at the world from another’s perspective using the history of the United States. Jolley then states that “Any study of To Kill a Mockingbird should encompass a study of the Civil Rights Movement” (37), and begins to write about different works that helped to do that. Among other works she writes about “Ballad of Birmingham,” and how it “provides rich lessons in irony, imagery, the power of poetry, and the history of our country” (38), through its telling of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. Her writing teaches the reader just how important the event “Ballad of Birmingham” is written about really is, while also speaking about the importance of teaching students about history such as

this.
Although written nearly fifty years ago, Dudley Randall’s “Ballad of Birmingham” still holds great importance. Many different pieces of literature are similar to this work, while articles written about it make it easier to understand, while also help readers to understand just how paramount and influential it is. Its historical context of 1960s America in the height of the Civil Rights Movement, and social context consisting not only of the hate and violence of the time period, but also the brotherhood and fraternity created by it make “Ballad of Birmingham” a truly remarkable work of art.