John Tinker Describes the Decision to Sue the Des Moines Independent School District after 1965 Student Protest

John Tinker describes the initial concerns of his parents after participating in a school protest of the Vietnam War, and how this led to a meeting of other community activists and the decision to sue the Des Moines Independent School District in federal court in 1966. 

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.

They [John and Mary Beth's parents] were very supportive once at once it had happened. I know they were very concerned about Mary Beth, a young child.

They were worried about what would happen if they send her back to school because she felt that she needed to wear the armband to express her concern and me too. They were concerned for us, for our emotional well-being; but also didn't know how to respond.

There was a public meeting held at the friend's house on 42nd and grand. A meeting of parents, students, college students, the peace movement generally.

There were many other people involved and there was a large meeting. I remember and the question before us was what should we do now that we've got these students kicked out of school.

We called the Iowa Civil Liberties Union lawyer, Craig Sawyer who was a professor at Drake. The advice he gave us was he thought that we did have a First Amendment case. He advised us to go back to school without the armbands on so that we wouldn't complicate the case with truancy issues. To go back without the armbands on and to sue the school system in the federal court for First Amendment issues.

When Mary Beth and I went back to school we wore black black clothes and everybody knew what the black clothes meant. I wore those clothes for the whole rest of the school year and everybody at North High knew what the black clothes meant.

I'll say that some of my teachers definitely opposed what I was doing, but others. Later another teacher absolutely did support it.

The social studies teacher, even when I was in tenth grade wearing black clothes, he asked me to come and talk to his class to explain my point of view on the war. It was not all negative there were really positive things that came out of it.