And the choir kept singing of freedom . . .

THE BIRMINGHAM BOMBING

September 15, 1963

Dynamite bomb placed by members of Alabama Ku Klux Klan explodes outside Sunday services at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, killing 11-year-old Denise McNair and 14-year-olds Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Addie Mae Collins, and injuring 20 others.

Due Wednesday, April 14, 2010

@ 12:00 Noon EDT

Post a comment assignment: Birmingham Bombing:

http://english102wcc01.blogspot.com/2010/04/birmingham-bombing.html

Post a comment assignment: I HATE YOU, YOU F#@*&!% ____!!!!! (optional):

http://english102wcc01.blogspot.com/2010/04/i-hate-you-you-f-optional.html

Read “Harlem” (also known as “A Dream Deferred”), by Langston Hughes:

http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=640

Print out the poem and bring it with you to class on Wednesday, April 14^th.

Read “Incident,” by Countee Cullen:

http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/9777-Countee-Cullen-Incident

Print out the poem and bring it with you to class on Wednesday, April 14^th.

Read “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (written April 16, 1963):

http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

Print out the letter and bring it with you to class on Wednesday, April 14^th.

Read “Ballad of Birmingham,” by Dudley Randall (1969)

http://webinstituteforteachers.org/~vfjohnson/ballbham.html

Print out the poem and bring it with you to class on Wednesday, April 14^th.

Read the lyrics of “Birmingham Sunday,” written by Richard Farina:

http://www.answers.com/topic/birmingham-Sunday

Print out the lyrics and bring them with you to class on Wednesday, April 14^th.

Watch the video “Birmingham Sunday,” sung by Joan Baez (Richard Farina’s sister-in-law):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ0y-vO9QLE

Write a First Response to everything you have read/heard about the Birmingham Bombing.

Use the following writing prompts: What affected you most? Why?

Or free-write your own response.

Be sure to provide specific textual details and quotes to justify and/or explain your response. Remember, a first response is not a summary -- use 3-5 quotes from the materials and tell how the event affected you.

Guidelines for first response papers are at the following link:

http://english102wcc01.blogspot.com/2010/03/first-response-paper-guidelines_6704.html

If you have any questions about the assignment, send me an e-mail at english102wcc@gmail.com, and allow up to 24 hours for a response (although I will most likely get back to you much sooner than that).