Children’s rights activist and trailblazing lawyer Marian Wright Edelman was born on June 6, 1939, in South Carolina.
After graduating from Spelman College and earning her law degree from Yale, her early career was marked by her work with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement, where she fought for justice and equality. She also became the first Black woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar.
In a June 26, 2014 file photo, Children’s Defense Fund president and founder Marian Wright Edelman attends a civil rights conference in Jackson, Miss. Edelman returns to Mississippi July 12, 2017, to examine how poverty affects people’s lives, much like then U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy did 50 years ago. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)Marian Wright Edelman and Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, stand in front of Edelman’s portrait at National Portrait Gallery’s 2022 Portrait of a Nation Gala on Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022, in Washington. (Photo by Eric Kayne/Invision for National Portrait Gallery/AP Images)California Attorney General Kamala Harris, left, poses with Children’s Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman at the 21st Annual Beat the Odds Awards, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Hosted by the Children’s Defense Fund-California, the event honored Los Angeles-area high school students who overcame personal obstacles to achieve academic excellence. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)Presidential Medal of Freedom awardees Marian Wright Edelman, center, receives congratulations from fellow awardees, John Kenneth Galbraith, left, and U.S. Navy Admiral William Crowe Jr., during ceremonies in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2000 in Washington, D.C. Sitting behind Edelman are Mildred McWilliams Jeffery, left, and Mathilde Krim, Ph.D., right, both also recipents of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
In 1973, she founded the Children’s Defense Fund to advocate for child welfare. Edelman has received numerous accolades, including a MacArthur Fellowship, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award, and over a hundred honorary degrees.
