A stand against inequality- Ballad of Birmingham by Dudley Randall

“Mothers 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.”

“No baby, no, you may not go,

For I fear those guns will fire.

But you may go to church instead

And sing in the children’s choir.”

She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair,

And bathed rose petal sweet,

And drawn white gloves on her small brown hands,

And white shoes on her feet.

The mother smiled to know her child

Was in the sacred place,

But that smile was the last smile

To come upon her face.

For when she heard the explosion,

Her eyes grew wet and wild.

She raced through the streets of Birmingham calling for her child.

She clawed through bits of glass and brick,

Then lifted out a shoes

“O here’s the shoe my baby wore,

But, baby, where are you?”

In the fight for equality the innocent victims lost add fuel to the fire and create bitter relations between the races. Every mother wants her young daughter to be valued as equal to the races that hold the power. Does that mean she is willing to put her in harm’s way? Instead of allowing a little girl to demonstrate for freedom she sends her to a safe haven, the place she defines as most peaceful a world filled with conflict. How can this be possible? A church is bombed and children the most innocent of victims are killed. You feel the fear in this poem, the loss. Those out on the streets demanding equality know that without resistance to inequality the world can never experience a positive peace. There needs to be a continuation of what they started so many years, there needs to be a stand against senseless violence that takes the lives of children. Peace cannot be weak.