Mary Beth Tinker Describes How She Felt After Supreme Court Case Decision

Mary Beth Tinker describes how she felt after the long series of court cases led to the final Supreme Court decision in 1969.

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.

I thought it took a long time and by the time we won. It was really hard to be real happy about it because the war was so terrible.

It was 1969, February, one of the worst years for the Vietnam War. All the time in the news, we were hearing more and more about young people being killed, injured, the Vietnamese.

It was horrific. Yes, we were happy that we won the case; but we were also sad.

First of all, it had taken so long and there had been so much misery of the war while this was dragging on for over three years.

We were happy and sad at the same time when we won the case.