- Marian Wright Edelman
-
Marian Wright Edelman 
Born Marian Wright
6 June 1939
Bennettsville, South Carolina, USAEducation Spelman College, B.A.
Yale Law School, LL.B.Spouse Peter Edelman Marian Wright Edelman (born June 6, 1939) is an American activist for the rights of children. She is president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund.
Contents
Biography
Early years
In 1953, her father died when she was 14, urging in his last words, "Don't let anything get in the way of your education."[1]
She attended Marlboro Training High School there, and went on to Spelman College and traveled the world on a Merrill scholarship and studied in the Soviet Union as a Lisle fellow. She became involved in the Civil Rights Movement, and after being arrested for her activism, she decided to study law and enrolled at Yale Law School J.D. 1963.
Activism
Edelman was the first African American woman admitted in the Mississippi Bar when she began practicing law out of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.'s Mississippi office. During her time in Mississippi, she worked on racial justice issues connected with the civil rights movement and represented activists throughout the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964. She also helped get a Head Start program established in her community.[2]
Edelman moved in 1968 to Washington, D.C. where she continued her work and contributed to the organizing of the Poor People's Campaign of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. She founded the Washington Research Project, a public interest law firm and also became interested in issues related to childhood development and poverty-stricken children.[2]
In 1973, she founded the Children's Defense Fund as a voice for poor, minority and disabled children. The organization has served as an advocacy and research center for children's issues, documenting the problems and possible solutions to children in need. To keep the agency independent, she saw that it was financed entirely with private funds.[2]
As founder, leader and principal spokesperson for the CDF, Mrs. Edelman worked to persuade Congress to overhaul foster care, support adoption, improve child care and protect children who are disabled, homeless, abused or neglected. A philosophy of service absorbed during her childhood under-girds all her efforts. As she expresses it, “If you don’t like the way the world is, you have an obligation to change it. Just do it one step at a time.”[3]
She continues to advocate youth pregnancy prevention, child-care funding, prenatal care, greater parental responsibility in teaching values and curtailing children’s exposure to the barrage of violent images transmitted by mass media.[3]
Edelman serves on the board of the New York City based Robin Hood Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to the elimination of poverty.
Personal life
It was in 1967, during a tour by Robert Kennedy and Joseph Clark of Mississippi's poverty-ridden Delta slums, that she met Peter Edelman, an assistant to Kennedy. They married on July 14, 1968. Edelman and her husband, a Georgetown law professor, have three sons, Joshua, Jonah, and Ezra.
Honors and awards
- 1985 MacArthur Fellowship
- 1985 Barnard Medal of Distinction
- 1986 Doctor of Laws, honoris causa Bates College
- 1988 Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism
- 1992 Boy Scouts of America, Silver Buffalo Award
- 1995 Community of Christ International Peace Award
- 1996 The 2nd Annual Heinz Award in the Human Condition[4]
- 2000 Presidential Medal of Freedom
- A Marlboro County library named in honor of Edelman, opened on February 22, 2010,[5] in her hometown of Bennettsville, South Carolina.[6][7]
Bibliography
- Edelman, Marian Wright (1975). Winson and Dovie Hudson's Dream. Cambridge: Harvard University. OCLC 49643782.
- Edelman, Marian Wright; Paul V. Smith (1980). Portrait of Inequality. Washington, D.C.: Children's Defense Fund. ISBN 0938008005.
- Edelman, Marian Wright (1981). American Children and Families. Washington, D.C.: Religious Action Center. OCLC 7968448.
- Edelman, Marian Wright (1987). Families in Peril: An Agenda for Social Change. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674292286.
- Edelman, Marian Wright (1992). The Measure of Our Success. Boston: Beacon Press. ISBN 080703102X.
- Edelman, Marian Wright (1993). Kids and Guns: A National Disgrace. Washington, D.C.: Educational Fund To End Handgun Violence. OCLC 32644803.
- Edelman, Marian Wright (1995). Guide My Feet. Boston: Beacon Press. ISBN 0807023086.
- Edelman, Marian Wright; Adrienne Yorinks (1998). Stand for Children. New York: Hyperion Books for Children. ISBN 0786803657.
- Edelman, Marian Wright (1999). Lanterns: A Memoir of Mentors. Boston: Beacon Press. ISBN 0807072141.
- Edelman, Marian Wright (2000). The State of America's Children. Boston: Beacon. OCLC 46480964.
- Edelman, Marian Wright (2002). I'm Your Child, God: Prayers for Children and Teenagers. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 0786805978.
- Edelman, Marian Wright (2005). I Can Make a Difference: A Treasury to Inspire Our Children. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0060280514.
- Edelman, Marian Wright (2008). The Sea Is so Wide and My Boat Is so Small. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 9781401323332.
References
- ^ Jone Johnson Lewis (2008). "Marian Wright Edelman Biography". About.com. http://womenshistory.about.com/od/marianwrightedelman/p/m_w_edelman.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-26.
- ^ a b c "Marian Wright-Edelman Bio" Children's Defense Fund Biography, Last Accessed Nov. 27, 2010
- ^ a b "Marian Wright Edelman Biography". Americans Who Tell the Truth. 2008. http://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/pgs/portraits/Marian_Wright_Edelman.html. Retrieved 2008-10-26.
- ^ The Heinz Awards, Marian Wright Edelman profile
- ^ "Marian Wright Edelman Library opens". U.S. Rep. John Spratt (D-SC), press release, December 24, 2001. http://www.heraldadvocate.com/Default.aspx. "Monday, February 22, was a dreary day by all accounts, with grey skies and bouts of sometimes heavy rain. But inside the Marian Wright Edelman Public Library, it was a different story: bright and warm, with an air of excitement that anyone could feel. Monday was opening day for the new library."
- ^ "Spratt Secures $1.325 Million for Marian Wright Edelman Library". = Marlboro Herald Advocate, Lynn McQueen, February 25, 201. http://spratt.house.gov/newsroom/01_02/marlboro_library.pdf.
- ^ "Marian Wright Edelman Library opens". Marlboro Herald Advocate, Lynn McQueen, February 25, 2010. http://www.heraldadvocate.com/Default.aspx.
External links
Categories:- 1939 births
- Living people
- People from Bennettsville, South Carolina
- African Americans' rights activists
- Alumni of women's universities and colleges
- American civil rights activists
- American female lawyers
- American humanitarians
- Children's rights activists
- MacArthur Fellows
- Nonprofit executives
- Spelman College alumni
- Writers from South Carolina
- Yale Law School alumni
- African American lawyers
- African American female lawyers
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