Legal Research on Prepared Testimony of Norman Dorsen
Annotated Secondary Research
February 4, 1982
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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 August 19, 2025.
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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