At 13, Mary Beth Tinker took a controversial stand by wearing a black armband to her Iowa school in response to the Vietnam War. When school officials suspended her, she took her free speech case all the way to the Supreme Court and won. Today, Tinker urges young people to become agents of positive change in their schools and in their communities.
Mary Beth Tinker was born in 1952 and grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, where her father was a Methodist minister. As a 13-year-old student in eighth grade, Mary Beth was strongly affected by news of the Vietnam War. She and her brothers and sister, along with other students in her school, decided to wear black armbands to school to mourn the dead on both sides of the Vietnam War.
The Des Moines school board threatened to suspend any student that wore an armband to school. Citing her First Amendment rights, Tinker chose to wear her armband to school. She was suspended.
This was the basis for the Supreme Court’s landmark, freedom of speech ruling in Tinker v. Des Moines. The court ruled that students in public schools do have First Amendment rights. Justice Abe Fortas wrote in the majority opinion that students and teachers “do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”
Tinker speaks frequently with student groups across the country to share her story, and to hear how students today are bringing the Constitution to life in their own communities. In 2006, as a tribute to Tinker’s devotion to the rights of young people, the ACLU National Board of Directors’ Youth Affairs Committee renamed its annual youth affairs award the “Mary Beth Tinker Youth Involvement Award.”
Explore the First Amendment
By attending JrNYLC, you will explore what the First Amendment does and does not allow us to do. Hearing from Mary Beth Tinker enhances the many JrNYLC activities that bring the First Amendment to life for students.
Throughout your time at JrNYLC, you will have the opportunity to state your views and develop effective presentation and communication skills as you discover new areas where First Amendment rights may need to be defended.