Tinker v. Des Moines: Celebrating 50 years of free speech and student voices

On the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling in Tinker v. Des Moines, we celebrate youth who take a stand.  We celebrate their will to survive and thrive, even in the face of grief and trauma.  In a society where they are not the top priority, we celebrate youth who raise their voices for change.

On Feb. 24, 1969, the Supreme Court gave young voices a megaphone. Justice Abe Fortas declared for the Court’s majority that “students in school as well as out of school are ‘persons’ under our Constitution, possessed of fundamental rights which the State must respect.” 

Students – and teachers – would no longer be expected to “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”  It was the culmination of a lawsuit we filed with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union in 1965 to defend our right to wear black armbands to school to express our grief over the Vietnam war.

We also felt grief in 1963, when the KKK murdered four black girls in church in Birmingham, Alabama. Their crime was to be associated with the Children's Crusade for racial equality. When James Baldwin and Bayard Rustin called on people to wear black armbands as a symbol of mourning, we wore them at a memorial service on the Capitol grounds in Des Moines.

Growing up in Iowa, our father, Leonard Tinker, was a Methodist minister, and we later became Quakers. Our parents took the gospel to heart. In Atlantic, where we first lived, the swimming pool refused black families. When dad objected, he lost his church, and we moved to Des Moines.

There, our parents became involved with the civil rights movement led by Edna Griffin and others.  Edna won an Iowa Supreme Court case challenging racial segregation at the Katz drug store and public spaces. When she founded the Iowa chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and became its president, our mother joined.

Then, on Saturdays, besides doing chores and going roller skating, we might be found picketing Katz drug store because they would not hire people of color. Or, we might be selling “freedom stamps” for the NAACP along Euclid Avenue.

As the Vietnam war escalated, we again wanted to give voice to our feelings.  About 10 students, including several from Roosevelt High School, the Unitarian youth group, and the Quakers, wore black armbands to mourn the dead on both sides and support a Christmas truce promoted by Sen. Robert Kennedy.  Five students were suspended, and three of us took the case to court. 

More:Fifty years after losing landmark free-speech case, Des Moines schools celebrate Tinker ruling

John at North High, and Christopher Eckhardt at Roosevelt were both 15 years old and in 10th grade.  Mary Beth was 13 years old in eighth grade at Harding Middle School.  As we celebrate this year, we will miss Chris Eckhardt, who died in 2012.

The youngest to wear armbands were our sister and brother, Hope and Paul, in elementary schools, who said “We want peace, too!” They did not join our suit because they were not suspended. 

We were not trying to make history but we found out later that history is often made by ordinary people like us, doing what they believe to be right.

Wearing black armbands grew out of our faith. Our parents put their faith into action, and, like others in the civil rights movement, were our examples. Stanley Griffin, Edna’s son, joins us this week. 

People love to say that youth are the future, but they are also the present. We have met so many across the political spectrum who are being heard loud and clear.  Some staged walkouts for safer gun laws after the Parkland, Florida, school killings. For Mary Beth, a pediatric trauma nurse, gun violence is personal.  On average, every three hours in the United States, a child or teen is killed by a gun. We are heartened to see youth speaking up, and to be joined this week by student journalists from Parkland who use their voices to address this issue and others.

We will also be joined by student journalists from Texas who are advocating for New Voices legislation to protect the rights of student journalists. Iowa and 13 other states have it already.

Students are standing up about many other issues as well. Destiny Watford, in Baltimore, stopped a toxic incinerator from being built near her school.  Alejandro Rangel-Lopez, in Dodge City, Kansas, led a fight to reopen polling stations so that immigrants could vote.  Mari Kopeny campaigns to prevent kids from being poisoned by lead in water, like thousands were in her city, Flint Michigan. Shoshanna Hemley wrote an article in her Iowa City school newspaper, The Little Hawk, about millions of dollars in budget cuts facing her school and other Iowa public schools this year.

Over 2 million youths are homeless in the United States. Students are testifying for housing policies to change that. Others stand up for the rights of foster youth.  The Little Lobbyists lobby for health care for kids with disabilities.  And, there are many, many others.

We are happy to be in Iowa celebrating 50 years of youth voices. Here’s to the next 50 years!

Mary Beth Tinker and her brother, John Tinker, were plaintiffs in the 1969 landmark Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines.  Mary Beth, Washington, D.C., is a retired nurse. John lives in Fayette, Missouri, where he and his wife operate the community radio station.

Tinker Tour USA comes to Iowa

Mary Beth and John Tinker, whose 1969 lawsuit led to free-speech rights for students across the country, will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the landmark ruling the week of Feb. 18 in Des Moines.  The schedule includes visits to Des Moines schools and a national livestream on Iowa Public Television starting at 10 a.m. Feb. 22.  A free public lecture at Iowa State University's Memorial Union is scheduled for 7 p.m. Feb. 25.  For more details:  https://tinkertourusa.org/tourinfo/tinker-turns-50/