This Monday in Room V, the American Constitution Society will be hosting Mary Beth Tinker, plaintiff in the 1969 Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School DistrictSupreme Court case, which ruled that Warren Harding Junior High School could not punish her for wearing a black armband in school in support of a truce in the Vietnam War, for a conversation on Tinker and Free Speech in Schools. 

As a 13-year-old student in eighth grade, Mary Bethwas strongly affected by news of the war. She and her brothers and sisters, along with other students in Des Moines, decided to wear black armbands to school to mourn the dead on both sides of the Vietnam war. The Des Moines school board tried to block the students from wearing the armbands, and most of the students who wore them were suspended, leading to litigation that would become Tinker v. Des Moines. Mary Beth continues to educate young people about their rights, speaking frequently to student groups across the country.