Imagine a time in American history brimming with violence and hatred between races. Some might think of the nineteenth century, and the years leading up to the civil war, however there is another time period that can be addressed. This is the time period in the 1950s and 1960s, when the African American Civil Rights Movement was at its most powerful. These years were filled with racial contempt and bloodshed, and these were also the years in which Dudley Randall published one of his most famous works, “Ballad of Birmingham.” Written in 1969, “Ballad of Birmingham” is written about the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that took place in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963, which took the lives of four African American girls. In this poem, Randall …show more content…
Willoughby Anderson. This article describes the events of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing from another perspective, and talks about the conviction of two of the bombers which took place in 2001 and 2002, nearly 40 years after the incident originally occurred. In the second part of the article that begins on page 478, Anderson begins to write about the bombing. He explains what happened, and included information about other African American children killed in the violence caused by the outrage at this attack. He writes that “The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing capped a year of escalating white resistance to desegregation” (Anderson 478-479), which is another source that expresses just how dangerous the context “Ballad of Birmingham” is placed in. Anderson later goes on to write that the bombing was one of the first attacks that white newspapers and the mainstream media actually reported on. “Other key locations of the movement, such as activists’ homes and other churches, had been bombed, but most of those bombings were never reported by the white-owned newspapers” (Anderson 480), which revealed that a large amount of the racial conflict happening in Birmingham during this time was unknown by the majority of the public outside of Birmingham. After …show more content…
Jolley writes about her experience using the novel To Kill a Mockingbird to teach students about history and to look at the world from different perspectives. To do this, the author looks at many different pieces of literature that she believed could teach students to look at the world from another’s perspective using the history of the United States. Jolley then states that “Any study of To Kill a Mockingbird should encompass a study of the Civil Rights Movement” (37), and begins to write about different works that helped to do that. Among other works she writes about “Ballad of Birmingham,” and how it “provides rich lessons in irony, imagery, the power of poetry, and the history of our country” (38), through its telling of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. Her writing teaches the reader just how important the event “Ballad of Birmingham” is written about really is, while also speaking about the importance of teaching students about history such as
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Show MoreIn the simplistic yet meaningful poem entitled “Ballad of Birmingham” written by Dudley Randall, a young girl and her mother are living in segregated Alabama during the 1960’s. The author gives a poetic account of the bombing that took place at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. By using imagery and irony, Randall was able to depict what living in constant fear was like for the average African American.
“Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future, and renders the present inaccessible” (Angelou). Maya Angelou illustrates the destructive nature of prejudice, and the effects that it may have on society. Her childhood took place primarily in the 1930’s, a time also known as the Depression Era where racism dictated the lives of many African-Americans that Harper Lee details in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Martin Luther King Jr., an advocate of black rights during the depression era, details in his essay “An Experiment in Love” how Christian love, or “agape” had sparked the African-American nonviolence movement. The novel is told through the perspective of a 6-year old girl, Scout and centralizes on two innocent figures, Arthur Radley, a social outcast, and Tom Robinson, a black man accused of rape, who are persecuted due to the prejudiced view of the town. As she matures and learns about the town, she begins to develop ideas and pass judgment on individuals that are in the town. Atticus Finch, Scout’s father, takes up the court trial to defend Tom Robinson, who is wrongly accused and sentenced of the rape of a white woman and eventually runs, only to be shot by the prison guards. Despite the open communication present in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, there is deficiency of love, as the author illustrates that societal prejudice is inevitable and leads to discrimination.
Forty years ago there was an explosion of bombings in Alabama. These attacks on communities seemed endless, as endless the hate that had been brewing in Alabama itself. These attacks seemed to be concentrated in the city of Birmingham, which is the setting for a place where a very tragic event will happen, one that brought the attention of the world to the evil curtain within Birmingham. In the church bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church four little girls were killed in the blast on September 15th, 1963. Although this event started unrest and upheaval, by in the end it will have sparked the destruction of the curtain.
I grew up in the city of Birmingham, Alabama. I was born there December 11, 1947. Most of the memories I have of growing up there are the most painful memories that I have, which is strong racism and living in every day fright. I remember not being able to drink out of the cleaner water fountains around town; they were for the white people. The water fountains that were available to us were few, far between and very filthy. The black people were treated like dogs in Birmingham. I remember having to enter of the all stores and restaurants in town through the back entrances. One place I remember so vividly was a restaurant called Stadium Grill. We ordered food there every week while we were doing the wash across the street at the Laundromat. We enter in the back door into a very tiny poorly lit room. There were no tables or chairs for us to sit and eat there, it wasn’t allowed. There was only a small window to which we placed our orders and left. The front of the restaurant was large; it had tables with real cloth coverings and beautiful flowers sitting in the middle of the tables. I never once stepped foot inside the front of that restaurant. The way our communities were much different than they are now. Black people were not allowed to live among the white people. The white people lived in big lavish homes on the far east side of town and the blacks lived on the west side of town in small run down homes. There was, however, one subdivision that the wealthier black families lived. The name of it was the Goldwire Area and even now it never compares to the homes in which the poverty stricken families live now.
Regardless the assigned reading’s time period is in Mississippi during WWII (1941-1945) and the Postwar Era (after WWII), chapters 21 to 23 does not primarily reflect Black’s discrimination WWII job opportunities in the military and war industries during or Postwar Era deindustrialization of labor and housing condition. But, historically reflecting on the extension on two time periods: 1) segregation of Jim Crow’s laws (1877-1950s) and the Post-Reconstruction tactics ranging from abuse to murder and 2) Civil Right Movement (1954-1968). The first example is at the bus station where a drunken white man told the Black woman and her children to sit at the Black side in the bus referring Jim Crow laws and performing a minstrel show satirizing the
The author, Rebecca Burns begins by creating the city in broad strokes, sketching the build up to and the fallout from the riot that began on the evening of Sep. 22, 1906 and drawing brief connections to major figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington to name a couple. Then she begins describing reported assaults on white women by black men during the summer of 1906 and the repeated lynching that ensued. Each assault, be it imagined, perceived or real, added to the growing temperamental heat in Atlanta thanks to rampant yellow journalism and an exploitative gubernatorial political contest. The journalists prayed on the few real accounts and reports then completely fabricate an unproportioned and unrealistic version of these attacks.
The author, Dudley Randall, illustrates the conflict and irony between the mother and her child. The mother only wants to protect her child from the dangers that await her, but the child on the other hand, only wants to be a part of the Freedom March in Birmingham, Alabama. “The Ballad of Birmingham” was written about the real life events of the bombing that took place in Birmingham, Alabama at the church of Martin Luther King, Jr by white terrorists. Though the bombing was tragic and resulted in the death of four innocent African American girls and injuring fourteen other people, the racist bombing was a dramatic turning point in the United States Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Dudley Randall shows that even though the mother has good intentions, they are not good enough to protect her daughter from an untimely death.
Christopher Paul Curtis wrote The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 throughout the course of 1995. The novel follows the Watsons, a black family living in Flint, Michigan during the Civil Rights Era. In a historical context, 1963 and the early 1990s have far more in common than one would expect. The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964 following the church bombing in Birmingham, and yet race-based discrimination remains a problem even in our modern society via passive racism. This paper will analyze the ways in which Curtis’ The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 draws parallels between the time in which his is writing during and the time in which he is writing about. This analysis will also shed light on what can be called the “white standard,” wherein all things white are “good” or “better” and anything not-white is “bad.”
When a group of children known as the Little Rock Nine stepped onto the campus of Central High School of Arkansas on September 4th, 1957, they changed history forever. By being the first black students to attend a traditionally white high school, the nine students helped move America toward a more fair and constitutional attitude toward colored people. To Kill a Mockingbird was written during this time period and deals with many of the same cultural issues even though it’s story takes place a few decades earlier. If this were not the case and the novel’s characters had grown up during the same time as the Little Rock Nine, there is no doubt that Scout, Atticus, Bob Ewell, and many other characters would have had strong opinions about and may have even taken action for or against the Little Rock Nine or the Civil Rights movement as a whole.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper lee in 1960. The novel tells the story of Atticus Finch, a white lawyer, and Tom Robinson, a black servant, accused of raping a white female. Finch defends Robinson in court arguing lack of evidence as his main point. However, the judge and jury still believe the woman’s testimony and orders Robinson to be killed. The novel has been praised for its outstanding literature since its publication. However, it remains a banned book by the American Library Association for its use of racial slurs and profanity. Due to it being banned, many high schools have reconsidered the notion of teaching it to their students. Two prominent authors wrote articles pertaining to this piece of literature: Angela Shaw-Thornburg wrote an article on her re-reading of the novel and her opinions on it; while Malcom Gladwell wrote an article comparing Atticus Finch to a state governor liberalist, James Folsom, and the restraints of liberalism in the south. In addition, Rebecca Best contributes her thought on how the novel should be taught by introducing the idea of “the other.” Regardless of the modern day political arguments surrounding this piece of literature, this novel contains a large insight into the time period of the 1960s which is an influential topic that should be taught to young high school students.
Dudley Randall's Ballad of Birmingham gives a poetic account of the bombing of a Birmingham church in 1963. The poem was written in ballad form to convey the mood of the mother to her daughter. The author also gives a graphic account of what the 1960's were like. Irony played a part also in the ballad showing the church as the warzone and the freedom march as the safer place to be.
Both To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, and John F. Kennedy’s “Address on Civil Rights” convey the themes of morality and Justice through empathy and courage. To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in a small, rural town in Alabama in the early 1930s told by the cherubic yet slightly rebellious Scout Finch years later than the book took place. The overall purpose is to tell how Jem-the narrator’s brother-broke his arm. At the time, there were many controversies about discrimination. The Civil Rights Movement had just started to appear in small doses, and people started to take action for what they believed in a little bit more than before. On the eleventh
Harper Lee’s only book, To Kill a Mockingbird, is the stereotypical tale of childhood and innocence, yet it successfully incorporates mature themes, like the racism in the South at the time, to create a masterpiece of a work that has enraptured people’s minds and hearts for generations. According to esteemed novelist Wally Lamb, “It was the first time in my life that a book had sort of captured me. That was exciting; I didn’t realize that literature could do that” (111). Scout’s witty narration and brash actions make her the kind of heroine you can’t help but root for, and the events that take place in Maycomb County are small-scale versions of the dilemmas that face our world today. Mockingbird is a fantastically written novel that belongs on the shelves for classic literature that everyone should take the time to read and appreciate for their execution of style and the importance of their content.
The book to ‘To kill a mocking-bird’ was written in the 1930’s and explores prejudice against black people. The book is portrayed through the eyes of two innocent children and shows the “irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South [of America] in the thirties. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one mans struggle for justice.”
An important reason why To Kill a Mockingbird is relevant today is the ever growing resurgence of racism throughout the country. Events such as the ones in Jena, Louisiana seem to become more common each day. Recently, a black professor at Columbia University had a noose placed on her door. The novel, which was an attempt to spread knowledge of the racism in the south, was trying to stop the very things that happen everyday now. As racism becomes more and more prevalent, this novel will be a good tool to help teach the next generation about racism, and about how it is wrong.