Negro School Children Win Landmark Decision Upholding Freedom of Expression

Press Release
August 6, 1966

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Negro School Children Win Landmark Decision Upholding Freedom of Expression preview

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  • Press Releases, Volume 4. Negro School Children Win Landmark Decision Upholding Freedom of Expression, 1966. 7909101b-b792-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/2d69e27d-404f-4a1e-a203-dc52132213c2/negro-school-children-win-landmark-decision-upholding-freedom-of-expression. Accessed November 23, 2025.

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New York, N.Y. 10019 

JUdson 6-8397 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE 
President FOR RELEASE 

Hon. Francis E. Rivers SATURDAY 
Director-Counset August 6, 1966 

Jack Greenberg 

NEGRO SCHCOL CHILDREN WIN LANDMARK 
DECISION UPHOLDING FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION 

PHILADELPHIA, hiiss.---Negro children this week won the right to 

wear freedom buttons despite school officials who attacked their 

educational value, in a landmark judgment handed down by the Fifth 

U. S. circuit court of Appeals. 

The court acting on an appeal taken by the NAACP Legal 

Defense and Educational Fund granted the Negro children their 

right to wear “Freedom Buttons" in the classrooms. 

This is the first such major ruling by a Federal court 

protecting freedom of expression for students in a public school, 

Montgomery Moore, Principal of the Booker T. Washing- 

ton High School of Philadelphia, Mississippi had suspended a few 

children for wearing and refusing to remove a small circular 

button which read “one man one vote.” 

Mr. Moore's excuse for resorting to such a harsh dis- 

ciplinary action against the Negro students was that these but- 

tons "Didn't have any bearing on their education" and “Would cause 

commotion” in the classroom. However, the “concerned” Mr. Moore 

had in the past ignored wearing of such buttons as the “Beatles” 

and other Pop Fads. 

The Legal Defense Fund lawyers argued that the children 

wore the "Freedom Button" as a means of silently communicating 

an idea and to encourage the members of their community to 

exercise their civil rights. 

The appellate court found the school disciplinary regu- 

lation “arbitrary and unreasonable, and an unnecessary infringe- 

ment on the students protected richt of free expression.” 

‘The court further ruled that the "school officials cannot | 
ignore expressions of feelings with which they do not wish to con- 
tend. They cannot infringe on their students' rights...where the 
exercise of such rights in the school buildings and jthe school- 
rooms do not materially and substantially interfere with the 
requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school." 

The Legal Defense Fund lawyers involved in the case were 
Melvyn Zarr of New York, and Henry Aronson of Jackson Mississippi . 

Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Publie Information—Night Number 212 Kiverside 9-848 Ss

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