Reflection On The Ballad Of Birmingham

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I grew up in the Catholic faith, I’ve always been told to pray to God about anything. Giving thanks, repenting, needing help and just someone to talk to when no one else can. When I was in church school I loved to listen to the priest in mass about short story miracles within our community. Church was my sacred house, the one place I felt safe and connected with God whenever I had family or life issues. However, not all sacred places are safe. The poem “Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall made me realize that the safest places on earth can destroyed by hatred. A small sign of situational irony, the title itself is very unique because during the Civil Rights Movement, there was so much change due to racial segregation and discrimination towards people of color. African Americans wanted to be treated equally like the whites, they wanted to have an education, have a house, be able to sit in the front of the bus and drink water from any fountain. In the beginning of the poem I’m introduced to a mother and son, a bond that can’t be broken. A bond so close that if anything bad happened there would be loneliness and one feeling the blues. “Mother dear, may I go downtown / instead of out to play, / and march the streets of Birmingham / In a freedom …show more content…

“But you may go to church instead / And sing in the children’s choir” (Line 15). The church to the mom is a family, a safety net from all the segregation going on. “But the smile was the last smile / to come upon her face / for when she heard the explosion / her eyes grew wet and wild” (Line 23). The church was where African American families went as one and felt as one, rather than different as soon as they walked outside those church doors. This poem is a message from what happened in Birmingham Alabama, what racial segregation lead to and lost the lives of innocent children, leaders and people that could have solved the cure to

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