To build a better future, we must first understand the past. That’s why we study history in school, or trace our genealogies. The old adage that history repeats itself is true, we can’t escape it.

And no student should escape an Introduction to Journalism course without understanding the importance of Mary Beth Tinker.

In 1965, Tinker and others were suspended from their Des Moines, Iowa, high school for silently wearing arm bands in opposition to the Vietnam War. The Tinkers eventually appealed the suspension all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that students don’t “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate,” a landmark ruling for student free speech.

Tinker is getting ready to start a nationwide bus tour to talk to young people about standing up for free speech. From the tour web site:

“At each stop Mary Beth will tell her historic story about standing up and being heard. Then the microphones will be turned around so that young people around the country — whose voices are sometimes just a whisper — can tell the Tinker Tour their stories, to share with the World.”

You can find out more info at tinkertourusa.org. Stops aren’t released yet, but if any come near Mississippi, we’ll let you know.

As part of of the bus campaign, Tinker and the SPLC are trying to raise money to produce a documentary about the trip.

If interested, you can learn more or donate here, or check out the video below. They have some neat prizes for donors, even small ones.