The Ballad of Rudolph Reed

While there are few explicit references to the Civil Rights Movement in the poem, Brooks represents Reed’s quest for a home as part of a larger, longer struggle for civil rights.

Brooks makes it clear that Rudolph Reed’s desire for a better home for his family is driven by ideals rather than mere materialism. That repetition of “hungry” (Line 7) is about aspiration rather than “berries” (Line 5) and “bread” (Line 6). Brooks further connects this one man’s dream to the long struggle for equality through allusion to the Black spiritual “You May Bury Me in the East,” one of several songs popularized by the Fisk Jubilee Singers as they toured the world to raise funds for building Fisk University (“Our History.” Fisk Jubilee Singers). While the song is focused on liberation after death, Reed’s hopes are earthly ones. He wants to own his own square of land where he can raise his children in safety. Reed’s commitment to fighting for a home places him on the forefront of the struggle for civil rights. Like many activists who put their bodies and lives on the line during the 1950s and 1960s, he is daring to do what “others in the nation” (Line 24) will not.