Mary Beth Tinker: Her Legacy Continues

Mary Beth Tinker, free speech activist famously known for her role in the Tinker v. Des Moines case, recently visited Ohio University on September 25 in Baker Theatre. The event was sponsored by the Ohio University chapter of Society of Professional Journalists and the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. 

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

 

That, ladies and gentleman, is our first amendment. That quote is also what was posted on the first slide of Mary Beth Tinker’s presentation to our aspiring journalists here at Ohio University. 

 

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Tinker v. Des Moines case, Tinker along with her brother and a few friends, wore black armbands to school in protest of the Vietnam War. Their administration caught wind of the plan beforehand and banned armbands, but the kids wore them anyway. All children involved who sported the black armbands were suspended. They rightfully decided that this suspension was unlawful because of their right to free speech.

 

The case was appealed all the way up to the United States Supreme Court, which then ruled in favor of the kids, stating that students do not shed their first amendment rights at any schoolhouse gate.

 

Mary Beth Tinker is currently on a nationwide “Tinker Tour,” visiting high schools and universities, telling her story and educating students about their rights to free speech in school. 

 

Considering recent events concerning our student senate here at Ohio University, Tinker’s appearance in Athens came at a very fitting time. 

 

She spoke mostly about her childhood and growing up “in a time of great economic inequality, racial tension, and war.” 

 

Tinker’s first spark of inspiration to stand up for what she believed in came when she and her siblings caught footage of the Birmingham’s Children’s Crusade in 1963. When she saw children being sprayed with fire hoses and attacked by police dogs for peacefully assembling to fight for their civil rights, Tinker and her siblings knew that this was not right. 

 

Two years later in 1965, the Vietnam War began to gain speed. The Tinker family would turn on the television every day and hear the number of soldiers who had been killed in Vietnam that day. The gruesome images being broadcasted to the American people of innocent Vietnamese people and our own soldiers getting hit with napalm and by machine guns moved Mary Beth Tinker, her older brother John, and her classmates to the point of taking action.

 

In talking about her experience, Tinker raised the question, “does standing up for democracy always make you popular?” While the audience looked around at each other for the answer, Tinker laughed and answered her own question, “no, not really.”

 

The message that she conveys in her tour is that students should never be afraid to exercise and defend their right to free speech. At the same time, in this age of technology, she aims to stress to students that what we say online, we cannot always defend. 

 

Tinker concluded her presentation by proudly noting that her court case victory was “a victory for the rights of children and teenagers,” imperative to her belief that “young people are the next great leap for democracy.”

 

Photo credit: ohio.edu/