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Take a Stand! Thats What Youre Here For!

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

-Dan Johnston said he disliked when students explicitly interrupted class


-Allan Herrick said that officials should not wait for chaos to break out before banning armbands
and etc.
-Chief Justice Warren argues that outlawing armbands went against "equal protections" of 14th
Amend
- 7-2 vote to reverse Judge Stephenson's decision
- Judge Hugo Black thought kids should be "seen not heard" (he was one of the dissenters and
agreed with Stephenson)
-Justice Byron White also seemed to despise free-expression of the youth
- 5-4 case allowed principle to cut out two articles from school newspaper, which wrote about
topics of divorce's impact on kids, and teenage pregnancy
-Case went against what was decided in Tinkers case
-Justice William J. Brennan accused school of acting as "thought police"
-These contradicting cases each portray 1st Amendment in different ways
Im Going to Kill You! Outline
-Narrator born in Burlington, Iowa in 1952
-Father Methodist minister, mother a housewife
-Six kids in family, moved to Des Moines, Iowa when narrator was 5-6
-Mother outspoken and courageous, Father quiet
-Mother got more involved in civil rights after the move, father too
-Parents and kids would picket courthouses about housing issues and voting rights
-Narrator lived in mixed neighborhood in Des Moines, friends and parents of friends also took
part in protests/pickets
-In 62' father was removed from Methodist church, no longer allowed to preach there because
they were trying to integrate it
-She decided to wear armband to school, and not much happened
-She was suspended for it, and her brother was too, but her younger siblings were not
-People threw red paint at their house, and called with death threats
-Someone threatened to kill her on the phone, and so she always asks who is calling before
talking to them now
-ACLU stepped in and offered to support a lawsuit against school board
-It was rough for her to deal with so much publicity as a teen
-After moving to St. Louis, Supreme Court decision came out on her case
-Again, the publicity was rough for her, especially since she was trying to make new friends
-She was invited to a walk where, at the end, she would speak out against the fact that student
articles were being censored
-She also took part in womens' rights and black power movements
-Her parents lost their jobs
-She chose a non-controversial job of piano-tuning
-She became stressed about the other issues of the country, like child-poverty and domestic
violence
-Spoke to Vietnam War veterans and decided what she did was right
-Feels pride that she took part in such a movement

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