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Marian Wright Edelman

Thu, 03/19/2009 - 15:25 — TechMission

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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.

Biography

Early years

Edelman was born the youngest of five children to Arthur Jerome Wright and Maggie Leola Brown in Bennettsville, South Carolina. Her father, a Baptist minister who instilled in her that Christianity obligates one to service, 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 travelled 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 become a lawyer and entered Yale Law School in 1963, joining the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in 1968.

Activism

Edelman was the first African American admitted to the Mississippi Bar when she began practicing law out of the LDF'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.

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.

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.[1]

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 undergirds 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.” [2]

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.[2]

Edelman serves on the board of the New York City based Robin Hood Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to the elimination of poverty and its scourge.

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 would marry the following year on 14 July 1968. Edelman and husband, currently a Georgetown law professor, have have three sons; Joshua, Jonah, and Ezra.

Honors and awards

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

  1. ^ a b Jone Johnson Lewis (2008). "Marian Wright Edelman Biography". About.com. http://womenshistory.about.com/od/marianwrightedelman/p/m_w_edelman.htm. Retrieved on 2008-10-26. 
  2. ^ a b "Marian Wright Edelman Biography". Americans Who Tell the Truth. 2008. http://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/pgs/portraits/Marian_Wright_Edelman.html. Retrieved on 2008-10-26. 

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