In the early 1990s, a coup in Haiti sent a new wave of political refugees to southern Florida. First-year teacher Sidney Brown taught ESOL classes to Haitian teens who came to Dillard High School in Ft. Lauderdale. As she got to know her students, she was surprised by the class distinctions that divided the French-speaking students, whose upper-class families had come by plane, from the Creole-speaking students, whose families had come in leaky, crowded boats. She also grew concerned about the conflicts between the Haitian refugees and the school's African American students. In this article, Brown narrates how she helped her Haitian students unify by designing their curriculum around their common concerns about injustice. She also describes how the students built bridges with the larger school community through their passion for drumming, and how they shared their personal stories in a prize-winning academic project.