When Tinker was 13, she wore a black armband to school in protest of the United States' involvement in Vietnam as a member of a group of students who decided to do this. On December 11, 1965, a student named Christopher Eckhardt held a meeting with a large group of students at his home in Des Moines, Iowa. Planning a school protest against the Vietnam War, the group decided to wear black armbands in school on December 16. They chose to keep wearing them until January 1, 1966. During a meeting for Des Moines School District principals on December 14, 1965, a policy was adopted that required all students wearing armbands in school to remove them. In this meeting, principals agreed that students were to be suspended if they disagreed. Thirteen-year-old Mary Beth Tinker was a student at Warren Harding Junior High who was among two dozen elementary, middle, and high school students that wore black arm bands to school on December 16 and 17. Five students were singled out for punishment, including Mary Beth and her brother John. Tinker reported that immediately after being suspended, her family received many threats from the public. "A man who had a radio talk show threatened my father on the air. Red paint was thrown on our house. A woman called on the phone, asked for me by name, and then said, 'I’m going to kill you!'" On December 21, 200 people attended the district school board meeting. Deciding to postpone a decision, at a January 3 meeting, the school board voted 5-2 to uphold the principals' ban. On March 14, the Iowa Civil Liberties Union filed a formal complaint on behalf of Christopher Eckhardt, John Tinker, his sister Mary Beth, and their fathers in the U. S. District Court of the Southern District of Iowa. The case claimed that by suspending them, Des Moines Public Schools had infringed on their right to free expression as enshrined in First Amendment. The District Court dismissed the complaint and upheld the constitutionality of the school actions, on the basis that the students disturbed learning in their schools. After that, the justices for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit were split, leaving the District Court ruling standing. The case reached the Supreme Court on November 12, 1968. On February 24, 1969, the Supreme Court found that by suspending Tinker and her peers for wearing the armbands, Des Moines School District violated the students' First Amendment rights. The Supreme Court's decision in Tinker is said to have set the legal standard for student free expression for many years.
In Time
Today, Tinker conducts speaking tours across the United States to teach children and youth about their rights. A youth rights advocate, Tinker has a professional background as a pediatric nurse who is active in union activism and holds masters degrees in both public health and nursing. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, in fall 2013, Tinker began a national tour promoting youth activism and youth rights with student rights attorney Mike Hiestand known as the "Tinker Tour". During the fall of 2013, the pair traveled 15,595 miles across the American east coast, midwest and southeast speaking to more than 20,000 students and teachers at 58 stops, including schools, colleges, churches, a youth detention facility, courts and several national conventions. The tour was scheduled to visit schools and events in the American west, midwest and southwest during the spring of 2014.
Honors
In 2000, an annual youth advocacy award of the Marshall-Brennan Project at Washington College of Law at American University honored Tinker by naming the award after her. In 2006, the ACLU National Board of Directors’ Youth Affairs Committee renamed its annual youth affairs award the Mary Beth Tinker Youth Involvement Award.
