Marian Wright Edelman American social activist, children's rights advocate, president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund Date of Birth: 06.06.1939 Country: USA

Biography of Marian Wright Edelman

Marian Wright Edelman is an American social activist, children's rights advocate, president, and founder of the Children's Defense Fund. She was born on June 6, 1939, in Bennettsville, South Carolina, USA. Edelman was the youngest of five children in the family of Arthur Jerome Wright and Maggie Leola Brown. Her father, a Baptist minister, passed away when Marian was 14 years old. However, he instilled Christian values in his daughter and, before dying, told her, "Do not let anything hinder your education," words that Marian steadfastly followed.

She attended Marlboro High School and then studied at Spelman College, where she traveled the world through the Merrill Scholarship for academic excellence and also studied in the USSR. She became involved in the civil rights movement and later faced arrest for her involvement. After her arrest, Edelman decided to become a lawyer, realizing the importance of advocating for one's legal rights. In 1963, she enrolled at Yale Law School. Edelman was the first African American woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar Association. During her time in Mississippi, Marian mainly worked on cases involving racial injustice and continued her activism as a representative of the civil rights movement during the Mississippi Freedom Summer in 1964.

In 1968, Edelman moved to Washington, where she continued her work and contributed to the creation of the Poor People's Campaign led by Martin Luther King Jr. She also organized a conference for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Subsequently, she founded the Washington Research Project, a company dedicated to advocating for public interests, and became concerned about the issues faced by impoverished and disadvantaged children.

In 1973, Marian Edelman established the Children's Defense Fund, an organization that brings awareness to the problems faced by underprivileged children, minors, and disabled children. The fund is completely independent from the government and financed through private reserves. As the founder, leader, and representative of her foundation, Edelman promotes ideas in the US Congress regarding adoption, caregiving, improving child care, and child rearing. The philosophy of the Children's Defense Fund stems from Marian's childhood experiences, which were filled with the very issues she now tirelessly fights against. She herself states, "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."

During a charity tour of Mississippi slums by Robert Kennedy and Joseph Clark in 1967, Marian met Peter Edelman, Kennedy's assistant. They got married in July of the following year. Marian and her husband have three children - Joshua, Jonah, and Ezra.