Ballad+of+Birmingham

Ballad of Birmingham To Kill a Mocking Bird

Ballad of Birmingham [|ASL "Ballad of Birmingham"] By [| Dudley Randall]

(On the bombingof a church in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963)

“Mother dear, may I go downtown Instead of out to play, And march the streets of Birmingham In a Freedom March today?”

“No, baby, no, you may not go, For the dogs are fierce and wild, And clubs and hoses, guns and jails Aren’t good for a little child.”

“But, mother, I won’t be alone. Other children will go with me, And march the streets of Birmingham To make our country free.”

<span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 35px; text-align: center;">“No, baby, no, you may not go, <span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 35px; text-align: center;">For I fear those guns will fire. <span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 35px; text-align: center;">But you may go to church instead <span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 35px; text-align: center;">And sing in the children’s choir.”

<span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 35px; text-align: center;">She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair, <span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 35px; text-align: center;">And bathed rose petal sweet, <span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 35px; text-align: center;">And drawn white gloves on her small brown hands, <span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 35px; text-align: center;">And white shoes on her feet.

<span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 35px; text-align: center;">The mother smiled to know her child <span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 35px; text-align: center;">Was in the sacred place, <span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 35px; text-align: center;">But that smile was the last smile <span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 35px; text-align: center;">To come upon her face.

<span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 35px; text-align: center;">For when she heard the explosion, <span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 35px; text-align: center;">Her eyes grew wet and wild. <span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 35px; text-align: center;">She raced through the streets of Birmingham <span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 35px; text-align: center;">Calling for her child.

<span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 35px; text-align: center;">She clawed through bits of glass and brick, <span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 35px; text-align: center;">Then lifted out a shoe. <span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 35px; text-align: center;">“O, here’s the shoe my baby wore, <span style="color: #404040; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 35px; text-align: center;">But, baby, where are you?” Dudley Randall, “Ballad of Birmingham” from Cities Burning. Copyright © 1968 by Dudley Randall.

[|16th Street Bombing]