4 1. Why does the mother in the poem deny her child

the chance to join one of the Freedom Marches

in downtown Birmingham? Cite evidence from

the poem to support your answer.

Answer and Explanation:

This question refers to the poem "Ballad of Birmingham", by Dudley Randall. In the poem, a child is asking her mother if she can march the streets of Birmingham with other kids, protesting for equality and civil rights. However, the mother will not let her go. She is afraid the police will end up resorting to violence against the crowd, hurting her daughter:

"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."

"No, baby, no, you may not go

For I fear those guns will fire."

Unfortunately, at the end of the poem, the child ends up getting killed at the church, a place her mother considered safe.

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