Music as Activism: Warriors Don’t Cry and Protest in the Civil Rights Movement

This unit, originally designed for eighth grade English, uses Melba Patillo Beals’s memoir Warriors Don’t Cry as the anchor text. Warriors Don’t Cry is Beals’s story of being one of the Little Rock Nine, the nine African American students chosen to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. There are two abridged and unabridged copies of the text; the abridged is more appropriate in length and depth for middle school, while the unabridged version could be appropriate for a high school English or Social Studies class. This unit seeks to make connections between Beals’s story, music and other artistic works, and the larger Civil Rights Movement. There are several opportunities to incorporate informational texts, poetry, stories, and music.