ATKINSON —Atkinson Historical Society will present “Live Free or Die: The Contested History of the Words on your License Plate” at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Kimball Public Library, 5 Academy Ave.
In 1969, when New Hampshire officials decided to put the state’s motto — “live free or die” — on its license plates, many citizens viewed the act as an endorsement of the deeply unpopular war being waged in Vietnam and protested by covering up or altering the motto.
In response, authorities cracked down hard: arresting, fining and sometimes even incarcerating those who engaged in duct-tape dissent.
People appealed their convictions, sparking a legal contest over the First Amendment that went all the way to the United States Supreme Court.
In this multi-media presentation, historian and former newspaper reporter Dan Billin tells a uniquely New Hampshire tale illustrating the genius — and the fragility — of the First Amendment.
Billin worked as a newspaper reporter in the Granite State for 17 years.
His nose for a story and years of relentless research have brought to light a wealth of detail about the shocking and long-forgotten tale of Noyes Academy and the extraordinary Black students who dared seek an education in antebellum New Hampshire.
He has now applied those same journalistic instincts to illuminating how putting the state motto, “Live Free or Die,” on NH license plates kicked off a battle over the First Amendment.
This event is made possible by a grant from New Hampshire Humanities, sponsored by the Atkinson Historical Society and hosted at the Kimball Library.