June 6 - Happy Birthday, Marian Wright Edelman

Posted on June 6, 2018



Sometimes someone is so impressive, I just have to sit back and say, "W.O.W.!!!"

Born in South Carolina on this date in 1939, Marian Wright Edelman studied in universities in the U.S., in France, in Switzerland, and even in the Soviet Union (!). 

She got involved with the Civil Rights Movement and was arrested, along with other students, at a huge sit-in staged in the City Hall of Atlanta, Georgia.

She graduated as valedictorian.



She studied law and became a John Hay Whitney Fellow at Yale Law School, and became the first black woman accepted into the Mississippi Bar!


She worked with the NAACP and the Poor People's Campaign of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Early in her career, she got involved in advocating for children, particularly poor kids, children of color, and children with disabilities. 

She helped found the Head Start program of early education for children in low-income families.

She founded the Washington Research Project, a law firm concerned with public interest issues and cases.

She founded the Children's Defense Fund to help kids in need, help desegregate schools, support Head Start and other early education programs, prevent teen pregnancy, make foster care and adoption services better for kids and foster / adoptive families, promote prenatal care, and on and on and on!


And...I am happy to say that Marian Wright Edelman not only made a huge difference in society, she was also recognized for her contributions with lots of awards.

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