In Memoriam Dudley Randall

During the civil rights era in America’s history, racial segregation was at its peak. Regardless of the changes that were being made in favor of the African American population, racial tension, discrimination, and violence were still found among the people of America, specifically in the South. Within this time period, there were strict regulations on the African Americans and they had very limited rights. Many of them turned to writing to express the grief that accompanied the discrimination. According to the article “In Memoriam: Dudley Felker Randall (1914-2000)”, Dudley Randall was one of the notable African American poets that lived throughout this trying time in America’s history. His poem “Ballad of Birmingham,” written in 1969 expresses

The entirety of the poem takes place in Birmingham, Alabama in the year 1963. During this time in history, America was in an era known as the Civil Rights Movement. This was the time period in which African American’s started gaining limited rights. Accompanying this time in history were terrible acts including segregation, discrimination, and violence. Birmingham, Alabama was one of the well-known cities in the South in which violence due to racial segregation was an extremely common occurrence. In the article “Racial Segregation Trends in Birmingham, Alabama” written by Bobby Wilson, the author states, “The success of any desegregation plan would depend upon the extent to which it increases interracial contacts” (Wilson 31). This shows how the goal was to eliminate the segregation in Birmingham, Alabama and America that was being enforced upon the African Americans, but this could only be done if there were efforts made between interracial contacts. Interracial contacts would have been people who interacted regardless of opposing races. There were few of these interracial contacts, and because the segregation was such a prominent role in Birmingham, Alabama, eliminating segregation posed as a difficult task. Because the setting

One article, “Tales of White Birmingham: The Letter and the Bomb”, speaks of how violent Birmingham, Alabama was during this time period. The article states, “Even before September 11, 2001, the resurgence of domestic terrorism and race-hate crimes within the United States has served to remind anyone who remembers the 1960s, that before Oklahoma City there was "Bombingham," and in particular, the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist church on Sunday, September 15, 1963” (Ling 655). This piece shows how Birmingham, Alabama was a place of violence and hatred due to the racial segregation found there. Dudley uses imagery to describe the extreme violence found in the city and compares it to the innocence of one of the four young girls killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. One example that describes violence is when Dudley uses imagery to create a depiction of the police. The poem reads, “And clubs and hoses, guns and jails” (Line 7). The author creates this image of the police rather than directly addressing them as police officers in order to list the things that would typically break up a Freedom March or other riot caused by segregation. Towards the end of the poem, the author describes the rubble of the