In 1966, three public school students in Iowa wore black armbands to school as symbols of mourning and hope for an end to the Vietnam War. John and Mary Beth Tinker and Christopher Eckhart weren’t surprised when they were suspended— the school had just created a policy banning the armbands. But they did not expect that their case would result in a landmark Supreme Court decision. In 1969 the Supreme Court ruled that students don’t “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” The courage and conviction of these brave students resulted in unprecedented protections for the speech of young Americans.