Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Outline
- December 16, 1965 when Tinker wore a black armband to school
- Summoned by principle and suspended for her actions
- Mary Beth Tinker wore it as a symbol for mourning for those in Vietnam
-Armband also expressed support for Christmas truce and cease-fire
-School-board president said people should support their county's leader in his decision
-Mary and Chris (sophomore who also wore armband) could come back to Des Moines when
they removed their armbands
-Same day, Mary's father organized meeting of 25 parents and students
-They concluded that students were deprived of a voice in the matter of the war
-Earlier that day, students had asked school board for emergency meeting concerning the ban,
which school-board President shot down
-The next day, three more kids were suspended for the same reason
-School superintendent said that students should be able to share their opinions on controversial
things, but he drew the line at armbands (said they could be a disruptive influence)
-One casualty of the war became a graduate of John Tinker's school (North High)
-Bruce Clark, a suspended senior at the HS, said that a football coach called those who donned a
black armband "communists"
-Sixteen antiwar activists arrested in Des Moines during the "Red Scare"
-In 1964 election, pacifistic prevailed when President Lyndon Johnson campaigned for "no
wider" war
-He abandoned this pledge in early 1965, after South Vietnamese troops fled from Viet Cong
attacks throughout country
-By years end, 200,000 American troops occupied South Vietnam
-"Nervous Nellies" were those who opposed massive escalation of War
-Dec 21, 1965 is year of US considering Christmas truce. Also when Des Moines school board
met to debate armband issue
-Craig Sawyer, speaking for Iowa Civil Liberties Union and parents of five suspended students,
asked for immediate reinstatement and repeal of arm.
-Des Moines school board debate exposed roots of conflict between free expression and public
order
-Bruce Clark brought up fact that students wore black armbands in 63 to mourn murder of four
black girls in Birmingham church
-Tinkers' parents said they did not raise their kids to be defiant or against Democracy
-Protests took place through "teach-ins" conducted with academic decorum in 1965
-Those who were anti-war often lead to protestors taking to the streets
-They were met with hostility (attacks) and often labels of "disloyalty"
-Protests began to take new forms as war brewed in Vietnam
-Norman Morrison sat on Pentagon steps and set himself on fire on November 2
-Dr. Benjamin Spock implored "virtual absence of debate in Congress"
-In Court case, Judge Stephenson ruled that students left First Amendment rights at school door,
and that free speech protections are "not absolute"
-Judge said armband could create stir and disrupt school environment
-Called armband policy "reasonable" and denied injunction request
-Warren Court neared its end by 1968