Edelman, Marian Wright (1939–)

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Edelman, Marian Wright (1939–)

American children's rights advocate. Born Marian Wright, June 6, 1939, in Bennettsville, South Carolina; dau. of Arthur Jerome Wright (minister of Shiloh Baptist Church) and Maggie Leola (Bowen) Wright; Spelman College, BA, 1960; Yale Law School, LLB, 1963; m. Peter Edelman (lawyer, educator and activist), 1968; children: Joshua, Jonah, Ezra.

Founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund, was the 1st black woman admitted to the Mississippi bar (1965); directed the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund office in Jackson, MS; worked with Head Start in MS; served as counsel for the Poor People's March in Washington, DC (1968); founded Washington Research Project; served as director, Center for Law and Education, at Harvard University; founded and became president of the Children's Defense Fund (1973); wrote many books, including The Measure of Our Success: Loving and Working for Children (1993), Lanterns: A Memoir of Mentors (2000), and I'm Your Child, God: Prayers for Children (2002). Received Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Prize (1987), Presidential Medal of Freedom (2000), and Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award (2000).