Monday, September 15th, was the anniversary of the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963.
Four girls–Denise McNair and Cynthia Wesley, both 11 years old, and Carole Robertson and Addie Mae Collins, both 14–were killed in the blast. The long, American story of bringing their murderers to justice can be found here, from The Oxford Companion to African American Literature and the University of Illinois Department of English.
Poet, Dudley Randall, memorialized the girls’ passing with a ballad written from the perspective of a mother. The poem’s conversation, between a daughter who wants to be out of the house, and we might infer–to fight, to be free, to live– and a mother who wants to keep her child safe, rings current, today.
My friend Bob Bradley, a Tennessee State University professor, shared this video with me. It was created by TSU students. Bob refers to this as a “tone poem,” and I like the sound of that.
Angela Davis mentioned, when interviewed about her own recollections of Birmingham, the whitewash history has painted over events in Birmingham.* Watch the video, below, and tell me–can digital artists write a new version?
*Further reading: Davey D's interview with Angela Davis for Hip Hop and Politics. The Ballad of Birmingham.org. Trio of TSU Students Set Civil Rights Poem to Music, Nashville Scene. Nashville Public Radio Report.