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“Ballad of Birmingham” is a narrative poem by Dudley Randall, a writer and publisher whose work during and after the 1960s was central to the poetry of the Black Arts Movement, during which Black artists created work for and about ordinary Black people. Randall published the poem in 1965 to mark the murder of Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley, four little girls who died when members of the Ku Klux Klan bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963. Structured in traditional ballad form, the poem is a testament to the bravery and outraged innocence of the children of the Civil Rights Movement.
Content Warning: The poem and this guide include references to fatal violence against children.
Poet Biography
Dudley Felker Randall was born in Washington, DC, in 1914. His parents, a minister and a teacher, moved the family to Detroit, Michigan, when Randall was nine. In both Washington and Detroit, Randall’s parents cultivated his literary tastes when they took him to hear public lectures and read books by important Black intellectuals and artists. Randall saw sociologist W. E.
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