Just before Christmas 1965, a group of students in Des Moines, Iowa, wore black armbands to school to mourn the dead in Vietnam. I was 13 and in eighth grade. The nightly TV news, with scenes of flaming huts, screaming children and soldiers in body bags had gotten to me. Along with a small group of high school students, including my brother, John, our friend, Chris Eckhardt, and even my little brother and sister, Paul and Hope, I decided to wear an armband that Christmas. Our message was peace.

We had no idea our small action would lead us to the Supreme Court, or that the ruling in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District 40 years ago would become a landmark for students' rights. But that is how history is made.

In 1965, the whole world seemed upside-down. Our teachers taught us not to fight, but adults were trying to solve their differences through war. In history class, we learned everyone had equal rights, but working on a school project about lynching, I learned blacks had been terrorized for years, even after the Emancipation Proclamation. And it was still going on. Walking with my friend, Charles, children would yell disparaging remarks because he was black and I was white. On the news, we saw children in Selma and Birmingham attacked with dogs and fire hoses just for wanting good schools.

By Christmas that year, about 1,000 American soldiers had been killed in Vietnam, and President Johnson had to decide whether to escalate the war or negotiate peace. A lot of people thought it was patriotic to support the war, but others thought we should try peace. One of them, Sen. Robert Kennedy, proposed a Christmas truce. After we decided to wear black armbands to support him, one of the students wrote an article about it in his school newspaper. The principals saw the article and ruled that any students who wore black armbands to school would be suspended.

After that, we weren't sure what to do. We'd learned about the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment in school, and we felt free speech should apply to children, too. And we had examples of other brave students who stood up for what was right, even facing dogs and fire hoses. In the end, we decided to wear the armbands, and some of us were suspended.

That might have been the end of the story, if not for a group called the American Civil Liberties Union, whose purpose since the early 1900s has been to defend the First Amendment and other constitutional rights. They provided a lawyer, Dan Johnston, who helped us win our case at the Supreme Court Feb. 24, 1969. The Court's ruling that "it can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate" still protects student speech to this day.

In 40 years, things have changed. Other Supreme Court cases, like Hazelwood, have weakened students' rights by allowing school administrators to censure what is printed in school-sponsored publications. But the desire of students to express themselves is alive and well. Recently in Florida, Heather Gillman's principal banned Heather's rainbow belt, which she wore to show support for LGBT classmates. Using the ruling from our case, 16-year old Heather took her case to court and won.

Censorship still happens to students. But I meet so many who speak up about things they care about: their schools, the environment, peace, voting rights, racial discrimination and so many others. In many ways, the law is on the side of students who want to express themselves, but laws are not always clear and some administrators may not know the laws. I'm grateful the precedent established by the Supreme Court 40 years ago is still protecting students.

We were scared the day we wore armbands, but we knew we had to speak up. The world seemed upside-down, but we had role models to show us how to speak up. Look around you. There are role models for you now, whether in your home, your school, your neighborhood, your town or even across the world. You can join them to change the world, and when you do your life will be meaningful and very interesting. It certainly has been for me.

Mary Beth Tinker, a nurse active with the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project at American University, and her brother, John, editor of the online encyclopedia Schema-root.org, will speak to Miami University classes and groups about student free speech rights March 30 and 31. Their visit is sponsored by the O'Hara Event Series on Law and Politics and the department of political science. For more information, contact Clyde Brown (cbrown@muohio.edu).