Civil rights activist Mary Beth Tinker to speak today at 2

Civil Rights Activist Mary Beth Tinker will speak at Western Washington University at 2 p.m. on Thursday, March 7 in Communications Facility 125.

The presentation is free and open to the public.

Tinker was one of three plaintiffs in Tinker v Des Moines, a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case for students’ First Amendment rights. Tinker was 13 years old when she was suspended from school in Des Moines, Iowa in 1965 for wearing black armbands with peace signs on them to mourn about 1,000 soldiers who were killed in Vietnam, and to support Robert F. Kennedy’s call for a Christmas truce.

Four years later, on Feb. 4, 1969, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 7-2 in in the students’ favor.

Nearly all student First Amendment cases cite this case, and it is often referred to in American civics and history textbooks. In 2012, tinker was included in the book “101 Changemakers: Rebels and Radicals who Changed U.S. History,” along with other prominent people, such as Rosa Parks, Mark Twain, Albert Einstein and Martin Luther King Jr.

Tinker is touring the country through the 2013-2014 school year to teach real-life civics lessons to young people through her story. She will be taking questions after her presentation.

This tour is sponsored by the Student Press Law Center, the Poynter Institute and the Society of Professional Journalists.

For more information, contact Peggy Watt at (360) 650-2338 or peggy.watt@wwu.edu.