Marian Wright Edelman in Conversation with Amy Goodman

Marian Wright Edelman

Marian Wright Edelman was born in and grew up in Bennettsville, South Carolina, one of five children.

In 1963, after graduating from Yale Law School, Marian Wright Edelman worked first in New York for the NAACP Legal and Defense Fund, and then in Mississippi for the same organization. There, she became the first African American woman to practice law. During her time in Mississippi, she worked on racial justice issues connected with the civil rights movement, and she also helped get a Head Start program established in her community.

As part of the efforts of Marian Wright Edelman and the Children's Defense Fund on behalf of children, she has also advocated pregnancy prevention, child care funding, health care funding, prenatal care, parental responsibility for education in values, reducing the violent images presented to children, and selective gun control in the wake of school shootings.