John Tinker Describes the Purpose of Protest and Activism

John Tinker describes his perspective on the purpose of protests and activism to raise awareness and to provide affirmation to those participating.

Mary Beth Tinker was a 13-year-old junior high school student in December 1965 when she, her brother John, 15, and their friend Christopher Eckhardt, 16, wore black armbands to school to protest the war in Vietnam. That decision led the students and their families to embark on a four-year court battle that culminated in the landmark 1969 U.S. Supreme Court decision for student free speech: Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District.
 
This interview was recorded on February 21, 2019 at Iowa PBS studios in Johnston, Iowa.

Well I think, you know, people talk about a demonstration. Did it do what it intended to accomplish? Or protest, did it work?

There's more to a protest than just the immediate goal. There's also the affirmation that you're helping to provide to all of the participants of that demonstration. That no, they're not weirdos. No, they're not out on a limb. Yes, there are valid reasons to think like you think.

Not just the people that are participating in the demonstration, but people who are watching it on the news. I think that it really does help to shift public opinion.

We did our armband wearing at the very end of 1965. By 1969 this public sentiment had shifted against the war.

I do think that the anti-war demonstrations, particularly the nonviolent ones. People don't want to see violent demonstrations. They're afraid of them and for good reason. But the nonviolent demonstrations really illustrate courage. They illustrate commitment, and that gets passed along to the whole viewing audience, as it were. They get a sense that there's a real thing going on here.

I know for the Civil Rights Movement it made a big difference to see the fire hoses and the dogs sick on these demonstrators. It gave the whole nation a sense of what's really going on here.