Marian Wright Edleman

Marian Wright Edelman (born June 6, 1939) is an American lawyer, educator, and children's rights activist.

- 

In 1973, she founded the Children's Defense Fund, a nonprofit advocacy and research organization. Edelman was the first African-American woman to be admitted to the Mississippi State Bar.

Marian Wright Edelman was born on June 6, 1939, and raised in Bennettsville, South Carolina, one of five children. Her father, Arthur Wright, was a Baptist preacher who was influenced by A. Phillip Randolph and taught his children that Christianity required service in this world. Her mother was Maggie Leola Bowen. Marian's father died when she was only 14 years old. In his last words to her, he urged her not to "let anything get in the way of your education."

Edelman went on to study at Spelman College. She studied abroad on a Merrill scholarship and later traveled to the Soviet Union on a Lisle fellowship. When she returned to Spelman in 1959, Edelman became involved in the civil rights movement. This work inspired her to drop her plans to enter the foreign service and study law instead. As a law student at Yale University, she worked on a project to register African-American voters in Mississippi.