On the C-SPAN Networks: Mary Beth Tinker is a Free Speech Advocate with five videos in the C-SPAN Video Library; the first appearance was a 2009 Interview as a Petitioner. The year with the most ...

Mary Beth Tinker, a key plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines, delivered a lecture highlighting the connection between student free speech and racial justice movements, ...

In 1965, John and Mary Beth Tinker went to school in Des Moines wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War. They were suspended, and the incident led to a landmark Supreme Court decision that ...

These Iowa siblings were suspended for protesting the Vietnam War at school. They took their case to the Supreme Court — and won — in Tinker v. Des Moines. John and Mary Beth Tinker’s decision to wear ...

In the 1960s and 1970s, high school student-led activism successfully reshaped school districts across the country.

Tinker v. Des Moines is a historic Supreme Court ruling from 1969 that cemented students’ rights to free speech in public schools. Mary Beth Tinker was a 13-year-old junior high school student in ...

A silent protest led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling that defined students’ free speech rights. The court’s 1969 landmark decision in Tinker v. Des Moines affirmed that “students do not leave their ...

Thirteen-year-old Mary Beth Tinker knew what awaited her when she saw her math teacher standing outside the classroom, a pink slip in his hand. Not two days before on Dec. 14, 1965, the Des Moines ...

Mary Beth Tinker is a retired nurse who lives with her wife in Washington D.C. and is a frequent speaker to student groups about free speech and expression. Young people will find a way to speak up ...