Marian Wright Edelman
Marian Wright Edelman
Marian Wright Edelmanis an American activist for the rights of children. She has been an advocate for disadvantaged Americans for her entire professional life. She is president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionActivist
Date of Birth6 June 1939
CountryUnited States of America
children gun thinking
In 1990, when we started the Black Community Crusade for Children, we were always talking about all children, but we paid particular attention to children who were not white, who were poor, who were disabled, and who were the most vulnerable.Parents didn't think their children would live to adulthood, and the children didn't think they were going to live to adulthood. That's when we started our first gun-violence campaign. We've lost 17 times more young black people to gun violence since 1968 than we lost in all the lynching in slavery.
real mean trying
Be real. Try to do what you say, say what you mean, and be what you seem.
giving-up giving said
Whoever said anyone has the right to give up.
education america survival
Education is a precondition to survival in America today.
gun violent plague
We're a violent nation, and we need to confront it. This gun plague has to stop.
kids home juvenile-justice
We are willing to spend the least amount of money to keep a kid at home, more to put him in a foster home and the most to institutionalize him.
justice leader movement
We must always refill and ensure there is a critical mass of leaders and activists committed to nonviolence and racial and economic justice who will keep seeding and building transforming movements.
caring role-models african-american
We must serve consciously as caring role models, emphasizing the ethic of service, not consumption.
children educational rights
Just because a child's parents are poor or uneducated is no reason to deprive the child of basic human rights to health care, education and proper nutrition.
success determination giving-up
Whoever said anybody has a right to give up?
change kings people
A lot of people are waiting for Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi to come back - but they are gone. We are it. It is up to us. It is up to you.
inspiring perseverance work
Don't feel entitled to anything you didn't sweat and struggle for.
children drinking white
I've always hated being hemmed in or seeing anybody being hemmed in. Even when I was the smallest child, I couldn't bear being told I couldn't drink at a so-called white drinking fountain.
people safety voting
We all need to get out of our safety zones too. In addition to voting, we need to embarrass people who don't do the right thing. It's going to take citizen action.