The "Ballad of Birmingham" wrote by Dudley Randall was about a church that was bombed in 1963. This ballad was wrote by an African American man who was forty-nine years old when the bombing occurred. This ballad features irony, symbolism, and discrimination.
It is very ironic that the mother did not want her child to be on the streets of a big city because of the safety factor, so therefore she sent her to church instead which was the death of her daughter. The shoes and clothing that she dressed her daughter in was white and clean when her daughter left to go to church but after the bombing she only found one shoe that was underneath all the rubble.
The symbolism is represented throughout the ballad in different ways. The mother replies to the question her daughter asked about going out to a Freedom March by saying "the dogs are fierce and wild" (6). The dogs are symbolic to the people and officers at the march that could get out of hand. The daughter wants to go to the march for freedom and the mother dresses her nicely and sprays her with cologne to send her to church. The mother was afraid of her daughter getting into violence and sent her to church to worship where she thought she would be safe.
The bombing of the black church was done because of someone who was prejudice. The march was held for the rights of the black people so they would be treated equal and not discriminated against. A small innocent child was killed by the grotesque actions done by someone who was against black people. .
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This ballad contains a lot of words that can touch the heart of anyone and any race. It has a regular meter when reading it. It could easily be put to music to make a beautiful song.