“Ballad of Birmingham” was written in 1969 by Dudley Randall. This poem was written in response to the 1963 bombing of a southern church in Birmingham, Alabama. Although it deals with an unfortunate and upsetting situation, the poem has a catchy sound and upbeat rhythm. It is a conversation between a mother and daughter during a period of serious upheaval and commotion in African American communities in the early 1960’s. The readers assume that the daughter is young, given the fact that the mother addresses her as “baby.” This a ....