Mary Beth Tinker

Mary Beth Tinker, educator, Washington, D.C., was a 13-year-old student in December 1965 when she and a group of students decided to wear black armbands to school to protest the war in Vietnam. The school board learned of the protest and passed a preemptive ban. When Mary Beth arrived at school, she was asked to remove the armband. Although she removed the armband she and four students were suspended. With the assistance of the ACLU, the students and their families embarked on a court battle that culminated in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision. In Tinker v. Des Moines (1969), the court ruled that the First Amendment rights to freedom of speech or expression applied to public schools and that school officials could not censor student speech unless it disrupted the educational process. Mary Beth continues to educate young people about their rights, speaking frequently to student groups across the country. She is active with the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project at American University, Street Law, ACLU, We The People and other children’s rights efforts.