Dudley Randall-old
Ben Yanke
Personal Life
Born in Washington DC in 1914
Moved to Detroit at a young age
Married three times
Began publishing poems when he was 13
Studied and eventually taught at University of Detroit
Poetry Career
Poem Counterpoem, with
Margaret Danner (1966).
Cities Burning (1968).
Love You (1970).
More to Remember: Poems of
Four Decades (1971).
After the Killing (1973),
Broadside Memories: Poets I
Have Known (1975).
A Litany of Friends: New and
Selected Poems (1981).
Ballad of Birmingham
Written in 1963
Written in response to the bombing of a black church in Birmingham
The poem focuses on one of these children killed in the bombing, and the child’s mother.
Eventually, it was turned into a song by Tennessee State
Ballad of Birmingham
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wW4SLv3jgM
Works Cited
Madget, Naomi Long. "Dudley Randall's Life and Career." Dudley
Randall's Life and Career. University of Illinois, n.d. Web. 09 Dec.
2013.
Randall, Dudley. “Ballad of Birmingham” Literature: An Introduction to
Reading Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Robert Zweig.
Backpack ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2012. 449-450. Print.
