Mary Beth Tinker

Mary Beth Tinker is a civil rights advocate best known for her role in a landmark 1969 Supreme Court case. As a student, she wore a black arm band to school to protest the Vietnam War, which led to her being suspended. The case, Tinker v. Des Moines, established that students have First Amendment rights to free speech in school, as long as their actions do not disrupt learning. Her activism helped define the boundaries of students’ free speech rights in the U.S. educational system.