Free speech advocate addresses Bentonville students

BENTONVILLE -- Mary Beth Tinker told Bentonville High School students she was "really scared and nervous" when she wore a black armband to her school nearly 50 years ago, touching off a controversy leading to a landmark Supreme Court case.

More than 1,000 students filled the school's Arend Arts Center on Wednesday to hear Tinker speak about her experience and her passion for free-speech rights. Haven Brown, a senior, interviewed Tinker on stage before the audience was allowed to ask her questions.

Tinker was 13 years old in December 1965 when her brother and their friend decided to wear black armbands to school to mourn those killed in the Vietnam War and to support Robert F. Kennedy's call for a Christmas truce. They lived in Iowa at the time.

"I was kind of shy and I wasn't sure I was going to do it because I didn't want to get in trouble," Tinker said.

A vice principal told her to remove her armband, and Tinker did. She was suspended anyway, as was a small group of other students who wore armbands.

The U.S. Supreme Court eventually heard the students' case, and in 1969 ruled 7-2 in the students' favor, saying their form of protest was protected by the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. That ruling is officially known as Tinker v. Independent Community School District No. 21.

Tinker told students she didn't realize what a big case it was until she saw it cited years later in one of her nursing school textbooks.

Tinker said she and her family were the target of hate when news spread about the suspensions.

"People were calling us Communists," Tinker said. "And my mother said, 'We're not Communists, we're Methodists.'"

The School District's argument for suspending the students was they were causing a disruption with their armbands, Tinker said.

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Free speech advocate addresses Bentonville students