“‘Ballad of Birmingham’: A Student Printing Project” is the subject of a new, one-case exhibition that will be on display on the first floor of the University of Delaware Morris Library from July 1 through Oct. 11.

The exhibit will feature the work by students in Prof. Martha Carothers’ spring 2016 class “Typography II.” The course is part of the visual communications major in UD’s Department of Art and Design.

During the semester, Carothers’ students created a broadside inspired by the one with which poet/publisher Dudley Randall launched Broadside Press, a major publisher of African American poets during the 1960s and 1970s. UD Special Collections has a large collection of books and broadsides from Randall’s press.

Broadside Press’s inaugural offering featured Randall’s poem “Ballad of Birmingham,” written soon after the 1964 bombing of an African American church in Birmingham, Alabama. That act of racial terror left four young girls dead. Dudley’s moving poem evokes the events leading up to the girls’ death.

Students in Carothers’ class began their work with a visit to Special Collections, where they heard a short presentation on the Civil Rights movement, the 1964 church bombing and the role of the broadside in the history of printing. Featuring texts printed on a single sheet of paper, broadsides go back to the earliest days of print, often being used in public commentary or protest.

After visiting the Broadside Press exhibition, the students began planning how they would produce their own version of Randall’s famous broadside.

The printing work took place in the UD Raven Press, a fully equipped letterpress printing facility, where students gain skills in this centuries-old craft. Carothers guided them through the process of deciding which type fonts and sizes would allow them to produce a broadside that would accommodate all of Randall’s 32-line poem.

The end result was two, large broadside versions of “The Ballad of Birmingham” on handmade paper. They will join the extensive ephemera collections of UD Special Collections.  

Members of the class also did a reading of the poem at a “read-in,” hosted by the English department for Black History Month.

The library exhibit will feature one of the final broadsides from the class, as well as a draft version, and Randall’s original text.

The exhibit is curated by Curtis Small, senior assistant librarian in Special Collections Department of the University of Delaware Library. A digital version of the exhibit will also be available online.