Building a Student Movement in Naptown The Corn Cob Curtain Controversy, Free Speech, and 1960s and 1970s High School Activism in Indianapolis

Abstract

In 1971, a group of students at Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis began to distribute an under-ground newspaper, titled the Corn Cob Curtain, to high school students across the city. The paper’s challenges to school authorities and its counter-cultural tone put it at the center of legal challenges, as school administrators tried to shut down the publication while students and free-speech advocates fought to keep the publication alive. In 1974, the case against the Corn Cob Curtain reached the U.S. Supreme Court, putting the conservative city of Indianapolis in the national spotlight over a radical student newspaper.