Ma Maria Wright Edelman 1939 Leo R Sandy

Ma Maria Wright Edelman 1939 - Leo R. Sandy

Marian Wright Edelman is an American activist for children's rights. She has been an advocate for disadvantaged Americans for her entire professional life. She is president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund She was born June 6, 1939, in Bennettsville, South Carolina. Her father was Arthur Jerome Wright, a Baptist minister, and her mother was Maggie Leola Bowen. In 1953, her father died of a heart attack when she was 14, urging in his last words, "Don't let anything get in the way of your education She attended Marlboro Training High School in Bennettsville, where she graduated in 1956 and went on to Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia

Due to her academic achievement she was awarded a Merrill scholarship which allowed her to travel and study abroad She studied French civilization at the Sorbonne University and at the University of Geneva in Switzerland For two months during her second semester abroad she studied in the Soviet Union as a Lisle Fellow n 1959 she returned to Spelman for her senior year, and became involved in the Civil Rights Movement. In 1960 she was arrested along with 14 other students at one of the largest sit-ins at the Atlanta City Hall

She graduated from Spelman as valedictorian. She went on to study law and enrolled at Yale Law School where she was a John Hay Whitney Fellow, and earned a Juris Doctor in 1963 She was a ember of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Edelman received an honorary doctorate from La Salle University in May 2018 Edelman was the first African American woman admitted to The Mississippi Bar She began practicing law with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund's Mississippi office, working on racial justice issues connected with the civil rights movement and representing activists during the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964

She also helped establish the Head Start program 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 children In 1973, she founded the Children's Defense Fund as a voice for poor children, children of color, and children with disabilities

The organization has served as an advocacy and research center for children's issues, documenting the problems and possible solutions to children in need She also became involved in several school desegregation cases and served on the board of the Child Development Group of Mississippi, which represented one of the largest Head Start programs in the country As leader and principal spokesperson for the CDF, Edelman worked to persuade United States Congress to overhaul foster care, support adoption, improve child care and protect children who are disabled, homeless, abused or neglected

She continues to advocate youth pregnancy prevention, child-care funding, prenatal care, greater parental responsibility in teaching values and curtailing what she sees as children's exposure to the barrage of violent images transmitted by mass media Several of Edelman's books highlight the importance of children's rights, e. g. , her 1987 book titled, Families in Peril: An Agenda for Social Change Edelman serves on the board of the New York City based Robin Hood Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to the elimination of poverty

During Joseph S. Clark's and Robert F. Kennedy's tour of the Mississippi Delta in 1967, she met Peter Edelman, an assistant to Kennedy They married on July 14, 1968. Edelman and her husband, now a Georgetown law professor, have three children: Joshua, Jonah, and Ezra Joshua is an educational administrator; Jonah works in education advocacy and founded Stand for Children; Ezra is a television producer and director who won an Academy Award for his documentary O. J. : Made in America

Awards 1982: Candace Award, National Coalition of 100 Black Women 1985: Mac. Arthur Fellowship 1985: Barnard Medal of Distinction 1986: Doctor of Laws, honoris causa Bates College 1988: Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism 1991: Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards 1992: Boy Scouts of America, Silver Buffalo Award 1993: National Women's Hall of Fame

Awards cont’d 1995: Community of Christ International Peace Award 1996: Heinz Award in the Human Condition 2000: Presidential Medal of Freedom 2004: The National Women's History Project named her one of their Women's History Honorees, "2004: Women Inspiring Hope and Possibility” 2010: A Marlboro County library named in her honor in her hometown of Bennettsville, South Carolina 2011: Rathbun Visiting Fellow at Stanford University

Quotes 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 As adults, we are responsible for meeting the needs of children. It is our moral obligation. We brought about their births and their lives, and they cannot fend for themselves Children must have at least one person who believes in them. It could be a counselor, a teacher, a preacher, a friend. It could be you. You never know when a little love, a little support will plant a small seed of hope Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you

Quotes cont’d The question is not whether we can afford to invest in every child; it is whether we can afford not to We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time It's time for greatness - not for greed. It's a time for idealism - not ideology. It is a time not just for compassionate words, but compassionate action

Quotes cont’d Investing in [children] is not a national luxury or a national choice. It's a national necessity. If the foundation of your house is crumbling, you don't say you can't afford to fix it while you're building astronomically expensive fences to protect it from outside enemies. The issue is not are we going to pay - it's are we going to pay now, up front, or are we going to pay a whole lot more later on It is utterly exhausting being Black in America physically, mentally, and emotionally. While many minority groups and women feel similar stress, there is no respite or escape from your badge of color

Videos What Parents and Teachers Need to Know Child Poverty in America

References Maria Wright Edelman. Retrieved from https: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Marian_Wright_Edelman Marian Wright Edleman Quotes. Retrieved from https: //www. azquotes. com/author/4350 -Marian_Wright_Edelman What Parents and Children Need to Know. Retrieved from https: //video. search. yahoo. com/yhs/search? fr=yhs-sz 001&hsimp=yhs 001&hspart=sz&p=marian+wright+edelman+youtube#id=2&vid=26 ca 1 be 87 ee 0 fc 58 e 5 b 87 b 4 e 7 d 9395 ff&action=click Child Poverty in America. Retrieved from https: //video. search. yahoo. com/yhs/search? fr=yhs-sz 001&hsimp=yhs 001&hspart=sz&p=marian+wright+edelman+youtube#id=2&vid=26 ca 1 be 87 ee 0 fc 58 e 5 b 87 b 4 e 7 d 9395 ff&action=click

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