Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham, Alabama

In 1954, the Supreme Court of the United States made a decision that public school segregation was unconstitutional, thus paving the way for desegregation. A year later, Rosa Parks sat down on a public transportation bus and refused to get up for a white passenger, sparking a citywide bus boycott. In the next several years, amid much racial unrest, African American students entered Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, North Carolina A&T University, and the University of Mississippi. In August 1963, Martin Luther King, calling for nonviolent equality, gave his “I Have a Dream” speech to more than 250,000 people in the March on Washington.

During these tumultuous years, the plight of the African American as well as the fear and anger of the white society filled newspapers and magazines, and became the subject in literary circles. Every Civil Rights story or article had a bias, a specific purpose, and an intended audience. Objectivity was rare.

In September of 1963, the racial problems exploded, literally, when a bomb blew up on a Sunday morning in a church in Birmingham, Alabama. Four African American girls were killed, crushed by the rubble of the falling building.

The story of the bombing has been told many times in many ways and from many different points of view. You are about to read two versions of the story. The first version is a ballad. A ballad tells a sad story through much dialogue and the interaction of several characters. The second account of the bombing is a newspaper article written in Chicago, Illinois -- not Birmingham. As you read the two texts, think about the purpose of each text and the techniques the authors use to accomplish their purposes.

READ THE TEXTS:

1. Randall Dudley’s “The Ballad of Birmingham”

2. Claude Sitton’s “Birmingham Bomb Kills 4 Negro Girls In Church” (Abridged)

Selected Response Questions

1. In Dudley Randall’s “The Ballad of Birmingham,” the relationship of mother and daughter

A. Highlights the natural speech patterns and dialogue of an African American family.

B. Is heightened by the use of rhyme and song-like rhythm

C. Develops the theme of ironic and irreversible loss

D. Allows the poet to withhold important information until later in the poem

2. The purpose of “Birmingham Bomb Kills 4 Negro Girls In Church” is

A. To give an obituary for the four girls killed in the bombing.

B. To explain the racial tensions that the city of Birmingham was facing in 1963.

C. To highlight the irony between the title of the Sunday school lesson,
The Love That Forgives,” and the death of the children.

D. To present an objective account of the events surrounding the event.

3. The best example of a similarity between the two texts is that

A. Both texts have characters that propel the story: the mother and daughter in the ballad and the list of four girls in the news article.

B. Both texts present a story using facts and emotions.

C. Both texts explore the irony of the bombing: the ballad explores the personal irony of the family while the news article explores the public irony of the current, historic situation.

D. Both texts seek to create strong emotion in their readers.

Short Constructed Response

After you have read the two texts, think about how you would react to the text and the information in the text on a personal level. Explain your reaction and what specific elements of each text caused you to react in this manner.

Extended Writing Prompt

Extended Writing Prompt: Compare and contrast the purposes for which Dudley writes his poem, “The Ballad of Birmingham,” and Sitton writes his news article, “Birmingham Bomb Kills 4 Negro Girls In Church.” For each text, determine who is telling the story and what choices the author makes to accomplish his purpose. Be sure to use specific evidence from the texts to support your response.

· In your extended writing response, be sure to:

· Introduce your thesis

· Include discussion of both passages

· Mention the authors and titles

· Support your thesis with relevant evidence from the texts

· Organize the evidence

· Give commentary on the evidence showing how it supports your thesis

· Establish and maintain a formal style

· Provide a concluding statement or section that wraps up your ideas

· Check your work for correct grammar, usage, capitalization, spelling, and punctuation

Ballad of Birmingham

Dudley Randall

(On the bombing of 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.”

“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 shoe.

“O, here’s the shoe my baby wore,

But, baby, where are you?”

Birmingham Bomb Kills 4 Negro Girls In Church (Abridged)

By Claude Sitton Special to The New York Times

Birmingham, Ala., Sept. 15--A bomb severely damaged a Negro church today during Sunday school services, killing four Negro girls and setting off racial rioting and other violence in which two Negro boys were shot to death.

The four girls killed in the blast had just heard Mrs. Ella C. Demand, their teacher, complete the Sunday school lesson for the day. The subject was "The Love That Forgives."

During the period between the class and an assembly in the main auditorium, they went to the women's lounge in the basement, at the northeast corner of the church.

The blast occurred at about 10:25 A.M.

Church members said they found the girls huddled together beneath a pile of masonry debris.

The dead were identified by University Hospital officials as:

Cynthia Wesley, 14, the only child of Claude A. Wesley, principal of the Lewis Elementary School, and Mrs. Wesley, a teacher there.

Denise McNair, 11, also an only child, whose parents are teachers.

Carol Robertson, 14, whose parents are teachers and whose grandmother, Mrs. Sallie Anderson, is one of the Negro members of a biracial committee established by Mayor Boutwell to deal with racial problems.

Addie Mae Collins, 14, about whom no information was immediately available.

The blast blew gaping holes through walls in the church basement. Floors of offices in the rear of the sanctuary appeared near collapse. Stairways were blocked by splintered window frames, glass and timbers. Chief Police Inspector W. J. Haley said the impact of the blast indicated that at least 15 sticks of dynamite might have caused it.

Answers to Selected Response Questions

1. In Dudley Randall’s “The Ballad of Birmingham,” the relationship of mother and daughter

A. Highlights the natural speech patterns and dialogue of an African American family.

B. Is heightened by the use of rhyme and song-like rhythm

C. Develops the theme of ironic and irreversible loss

D. Allows the poet to withhold important information until later in the poem

Answer A is incorrect because the speech patterns in the poem are not natural or reflective of how people speak. Answer B is incorrect; although the rhyme patterns are exact and ballads are traditionally meant to be sung, these two poetic devices do not heighten the relationship of the mother and daughter. Answer D is incorrect because, while ballads usually withhold an important piece of information, nothing that is essential to the telling of the immediate story is withheld in this poem. The theme of ironic and irreversible loss, answer C, is made more poignant by the relationship of the two characters.

2. The purpose of “Birmingham Bomb Kills 4 Negro Girls In Church” is

A. To give an obituary for the four girls killed in the bombing.

B. To explain the racial tensions that the city of Birmingham was facing in 1963.

C. To highlight the irony between the title of the Sunday school lesson, “The Love That Forgives,” and the death of the children.

D. To present an objective account of the events surrounding the event.

An obituary, mentioned in answer A, typically includes a brief biography of a deceased person; however, the purpose of the article is much greater than that. “Racial tensions” in Birmingham are mentioned in the article, but Answer B is too broad. Answer C is partially correct; the newspaper article does mention the irony of the title of the Sunday school lesson, but C does not address the purpose of the story. D is the most correct answer; the emotions surrounding the event are stripped from the article.

3. The best example of a similarity between the two texts is that

A. Both texts have characters that propel the story: the mother and daughter in the ballad and the list of four girls in the news article.

B. Both texts present a story using facts and emotions.

C. Both texts explore the irony of the bombing: the ballad explores the personal irony of the family while the news article explores the public irony of the current – now historic – situation.

D. Both texts seek to create strong emotion in their readers.

Answer A is incorrect because the list of girls in the new article is merely that – a list. Answer B is incorrect because the poem has few facts and the article has few emotions. Answer D is incorrect because the news article does not try to sway its readers to a particular emotion. Answer C is the best choice.

Birmingham, Alabama: Reading / Writing Strategies to Prepare for Extended Writing Prompt

With your students, read and discuss the initial information given with the readings (top half of Page 1). You and the students will return to this later. Have the students read the paired passages, using the reading strategy suggested for each text. You may choose to create your own strategy.

Before tackling the writing, have the students respond to the selected response (multiple choice) question(s) that pertain to the text. One question is asked about each text and one question combines the texts. These questions are designed to begin the thinking process for the students as they work toward the Extended Writing. As a group, you may wish to talk about the answers and why they are the best answers.

The Short Constructed Response is also designed to help the students organize their thoughts before the Extended Writing. Have your students compose these sentences now; however, they may wish to revise their response later in the writing section.

After finishing the initial reading, the selected response items, and the short constructed response, begin with the 5x8 card activities. Have your students label five 5x8 cards:

Prompt
Ballad
Article
Introduction
Conclusion

Students will write the essay parts in the order of the cards. The directions for generating information and peer revision are basically the same for each step of the process. The card strategy is a gradual release model, helping students internalize how to approach longer texts and paired passages. It is very important that the teacher model / talk through with the class how to record the information on the cards.

Note: In the strategies below, the Reading directions are written to the teacher. The Writing directions are written to the student.

Before Reading the Texts, Read the Prompt

With your students, read the prompt carefully.

Have your students circle the words that tell them what they are to do (e.g., compare and contract). Next have them draw a line under the direct object of these verbs. On the Prompt 5x8 card, have them make a chart of what the prompt asks them to do. As they read the text, they need to have these key ideas in mind.

Finally (and this is crucial!), at the bottom of the 5x8 card, have the students rewrite the prompt into a single sentence that incorporates what the prompt has asked them to do. This will become the basis for the thesis statement.

Peer Check: Have the students trade cards with a partner and read their partner’s card. On the back of the card, they should add any details that could be included in the information to make the thesis more clear. When they are both finished writing, return the card.