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
aware children home key kid love meeting simply
The key is that your children are aware that you love them a lot, and that you are there when they really, really need you. If a kid was ill, I would simply leave a meeting and go home.
children kids needs
Children cannot eat rhetoric and they cannot be sheltered by commissions. I don't want to see another commission that studies the needs of kids. We need to help them.
children kids care
The legacy I want to leave is a child-care system that says that no kid is going to be left alone or left unsafe.
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.
growing-up kids parent
The outside world told black kids when I was growing up that we weren't worth anything. But our parents said it wasn't so, and our churches and our schoolteachers said it wasn't so. They believed in us, and we, therefore, believed in ourselves.
afraid driving faith liberals moral people perceived talking
My faith has been the driving thing of my life. I think it is important that people who are perceived as liberals not be afraid of talking about moral and community values.
beneath civil clear economic social unless
It was clear to me as a civil rights leader in the '60s that unless we put the social and economic underpinnings beneath the political and the civil rights, we wouldn't go anywhere.
leader trying connections
In my generation, we learned how to be leaders by being exposed to and involved with adults who empowered us and gave us a sense that we could choose things. We've let down the generations coming behind us and we are trying to re- establish that connection.
determined ancestor
You'd better stay determined, because that's how our ancestors got us where we are.
commitment lists sleeves
It is time for every one of us to roll up our sleeves and put ourselves at the top of our commitment list.
children two class
God did not create two classes of children or human beings-only one.
inspirational kings thinking
Dr. King used to say, 'I was sitting in the back of the bus, but my mind was always up front.' Don't let anybody tell you that you can't do it. You aim high and you work very hard and now I think it's clear that you can be anything you want to.
government work-out needs
I need to work outside government, on my own,
hands community independence
Education remains one of the black community's most enduring values. It is sustained by the belief that freedom and education go hand in hand, that learning and training are essential to economic quality and independence.