An Appeal for Human Rights

Marian Wright Edelman, Founder and President Emerita, Children's Defense Fund (CDF)

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As the Children’s Defense Fund proudly reinvigorates its Black Student Leadership Network for Children for a new generation, the close of Black History Month provides one more chance to look back at earlier waves of activism that helped bring us this far on the way. When my Spelman College classmate and fellow Merrill Scholar Roslyn Pope passed away earlier this year, it prompted many people to remember her key role while serving as Spelman’s student body president at a pivotal moment in 1960: drafting the “Appeal for Human Rights” that became the manifesto for Atlanta students in the Civil Rights Movement.