Civil Rights at Andrews: The Right to Free Speech Part 1

In the original United States Bill of Rights, ratified on December 1, 1791, the First Amendment to the Constitution states, in relevant part, that “Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech.” According to the United States Courts, the civil right to free speech also includes things like the right to engage in symbolic speech (e.g. burning the flag in protest), the right to use certain offensive words and phrases to convey political messages, and the right to wear accessories (i.e. armbands) in protest. 

Conversations surrounding the right to freedom of speech have elicited varying and often opposing interpretations of this amendment. Just last semester, the Student Movement published an article titled “AU Confessions: Can Free Speech Go Too Far?” This piece discussed the implications of our right to absolute freedom of speech and what some uses (or misuses) of this right could mean for students at Andrews. Even so, the fact remains that each citizen reserves the constitutional right to practice this freedom of speech.

In the historic Tinker v. Des Moines Supreme Court ruling of 1969, it was stated that “students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate.” In this case, high school students wore black armbands to school in silent protest of the war in Vietnam. These students were subsequently suspended because the school’s administrators said their protest caused a disruption in the learning environment. The school was sued and the case was taken all the way to the Supreme Court. It ended in a 7-2 majority ruling that school officials “could not prohibit only on the suspicion that the speech might disrupt the learning environment.” This case served as a catalyst for change and sparked conversations about students’ right to freedom of speech and expression all over the nation.

In light of the upcoming 150th anniversary of Andrews University, it is important to highlight how special it is that Andrews has a space, not only for the protection of students’ right to free speech, but the upliftment of students’ voices. The Student Movement was founded in 1915 and has since served as a place where students can express their ideas, connect with various happenings on campus, and ultimately provide discourse on pertinent issues, having the potential to affect real change. Last year’s Student Movement editor-in-chief, Alannah Tjhatra, wrote this in an article about the meaning of “Student Movement”: “The Student Movement is meant to be the voice of our campus’s young people. It is meant to spark discussions and push readers to engage critically with the current news. [...] We are capable of changing the world around us. And to begin, all we must do is to lift our pens to write, and raise our voices to speak.” 

In this two-part series on the importance of maintaining the student’s right to speech, we will look at the University’s history with this part of the First Amendment, when and in what cases this right may have been thwarted, and implications for the future of AU students. Stay tuned for more.