When the charred bodies of four young girls were found in the back stairwell of a Baptist church in Alabama in 1963, free speech advocate Mary Beth Tinker felt connected to them and other youth suffering during the civil rights movement.

‘I related to those girls because they were about my age,’ she said to students, professors and community members at the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium on Monday night. ‘I wondered if their church basement was like our church basement.’

After that, Tinker said, she started getting more involved. The 11-year-old started picketing.

Tinker, an early pioneer for students’ free speech rights, spoke at an event titled ‘At the Schoolhouse Gate: Freedom of Speech in Schools – A Conversation with Mary Beth Tinker’ as part of the Tully Center for Free Speech’s Distinguished Speaker Series.

Her decision to protest the Vietnam War by wearing an armband to school led to a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld students’ rights to free speech. The decision continues to influence school speech cases, and Tinker still advocates for what she called ‘the power of youth to take things forward.’

Early childhood experiences in Iowa instilled in Tinker a strong moral obligation to advocate for peace. Her parents, Tinker said, ‘kept speaking up for justice’ during the civil rights movement. With her five siblings, she watched images of the Vietnam War unfold on television.

‘As kids, we were so moved by that,’ she said.

As a 13-year-old, Tinker wore a black armband to junior high school in protest of the Vietnam War. She, her brother and his friend were ultimately suspended for violating a policy the town’s principals and superintendent hastily crafted after reading a news article about the upcoming protest in the high school paper, Tinker said.

With assistance from the American Civil Liberties Union, Tinker and the other students sued the school district for infringing on their First Amendment rights. Although she didn’t like breaking official rules, Tinker said she felt that kids should have rights.

‘We were just wearing these little armbands,’ she said. ‘We weren’t doing anything to hurt or bother anyone.’
The Tinker family received hate mail and a bomb threat on Christmas Eve. They lost cases at district and appellate courts. But four years later, the U.S. Supreme Court heard Tinker’s case.

‘It was intimidating and exciting all at the same time,’ she said. ‘I thought we were going to lose because kids aren’t going to win up against these powerful people.’

In Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, the Supreme Court ruled in Tinker’s favor. Setting a standard for free speech rights at schools, the Supreme Court wrote in a 7-2 decision that students do not ‘shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.’

In addressing contemporary free speech cases in schools across the country, Tinker said the state of free speech, and the schools themselves, is not good. She said she thinks better civic education and social media are imperative for affecting social change.

‘It is good for young people because they can get their ideas out,’ she said.
Addressing an audience member who disagreed with her justifications for free speech in schools, Tinker said, ‘It’s good to have different opinions. That’s democracy.’

Now a pediatric nurse in Washington, D.C., Tinker cares for youth who face violence daily and come to her with stab wounds.

Josh Eisenfeld, senior television, radio and film major, said he enjoyed hearing about Tinker’s personal experience and thought she offered a fresh change of pace from previous speakers.

‘Usually we have people who are so-called ‘experts,” Eisenfeld said. ‘She was not necessarily an expert, but it was interesting to hear from someone who has firsthand experience in how free speech can change the country.’
Sophomore Kacie Flynn was pleasantly surprised by the conversational tone of the event because she had expected a lecture.

‘I thought it was interesting,’ said Flynn, a communications design major. ‘A nice perspective on how kids can be involved, get active and use their voice.’

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Published on March 19, 2012 at 12:00 pm