Dudley Randall's "Ballad of Birmingham"

When asked which of many poems moved me the most, I automatically think of "Ballad of Birmingham". While it wasn't on the list, and was only one of many (250) poems I read, I can't forget about it and the chills it gives me. This poem is absolutely beautiful in its language and chillingly tragic in its story and message.

The necessary background for this poem is pretty simple. In 1963, a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama shortly before Sunday service began. The church was predominantly black and was a meeting spot for civil rights leaders. While the 60's was a time known for the advancements in civil rights in the US, it was still a time of racism and persecution, as evident in this appalling event.
You can read more about the incident here: http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/birmingham-church-bombing

The poem itself focuses on a mother and her daughter living in Birmingham, Alabama before the bombing. To start, the young girl asks her mother if she can go to participate in a Freedom March. Fearing for her daughter's life, the mother tells her that she must not go to the Freedom March and instead go sing in the church choir. Despite her mother's attempts to keep her safe, the daughter dies when the church is bombed. Her mother runs to the church after hearing the explosion and looks through the rubble for her daughter only to find her shoe.

Sadness and tragedy is seeped into every aspect of this poem. First, there is the cold irony; The mother told her daughter to go to church instead of the Freedom March to keep her safe, and yet it was in the supposedly safe church that her daughter was killed. The message isn't any more cheerful; when people are persecuted, there is no place that is really safe for them. Going to church was no safer than going on a Freedom March because the hatred of the racists was not confined to the streets but rather invaded the lives of everyone it seeked to destroy. There's really no positive way to look at it.

Besides having a real, tragic story to it, this poem really moved me because it was so raw and emotional. The daughter is obviously innocent, as her only wish is to join her friends and march peacefully for freedom. The mother is shown to be caring and compassionate, as her one wish is to keep her daughter, her baby safe. And then, when the mother hears the explosion, she immediately runs to the church in fear and looks for her baby, only to find a shoe. The fear is evident where "Her eyes grew wet and wild" and I couldn't help but feel the desperation in her heart when the mother "clawed through bits of glass and brick" looking for her sweet child.

I was so disturbed, saddened, and generally moved by this poem that I couldn't help but ask to read it to my parents. It was my mistake, for as I read it my voice threatened to crack and I thought I might cry. It's hard to say what my "favorite" lines were, because this poem is so tragic and reflects a tragic part of American history. I can say, however, that the 6th and last stanzas moved me the most. The read, "The mother smiled to know her child was in the sacred place, but that smile was the last smile that came upon her face" and "She clawed through bits of glass and brick, then lifted out a shoe. 'Oh, here's the shoe my baby more, but, baby, where are you?" I can only hope that there will be a time when such poems are no longer created due to a lack of such material.