Read the excerpts below and answer the question that follows. The decisions of the U. S. Supreme Court have a lasting effect on all Americans. Two of the court’s landmark rulings that had an impact on American students were Brown v. the Board of Education (1954) and Tinker v. Des Moines (1969).

Brown vs. the Board of Education ended school segregation. In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that segregated schools were unconstitutional, challenging decades / centuries of legalized segregation in America. It was considered the most important civil rights case of the twentieth century. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the Court's unanimous opinion.

(courtesy of PBS Learning Media)

Tinker vs. Des Moines protected freedom of speech for students at school. Mary Beth Tinker was a 13-year-old junior high school student in December 1965 when she, her brother John, 15, and their friend Christopher Eckhardt, 16, wore black armbands to school to protest the war in Vietnam. That decision led the students and their families to embark on a four-year court battle that culminated in the landmark 1969 U. S. Supreme Court decision that defined free speech rights for public school students — Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District.

(courtesy of PBS Learning Media)

Question - How have one or both of these rulings affected you in your school life? Use evidence from the text to support your knowledge of the topic. Answer in complete sentences.

GIVING 20 POINTS