Why Is Music So Important to Social Justice Movements? | American Masters

It Consciously Followed the Examples of Earlier Movements in Which Collective Singing Raised the Spirits of Movement Participants, Promoted a Strong Sense of Shared Identity Among Them, and Gave Them the Hope and Courage to Carry on in the Face of Adversity. Members of the Farmworkers’ Cultural Ensemble, El Teatro Campesino, Created Spanish Versions of Well-Known Songs from Both Established Labor Unions and the Civil Rights Movement, Which They Sang in the Fields and on Picket Lines as Part of Their Fledgling Union’s Efforts to Organize Laborers in the Vineyards Surrounding Delano, California.