Marian Wright Edelman

Marian Wright Edelman has been an impassioned, lifelong advocate of children's rights since her career began in the mid-1960's. A graduate of Yale Law School, she was the first black woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar.

Edelman has acted as director for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, counsel for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Poor People's Campaign, and director of the Center for Law and Education at Harvard University. She also founded the Washington Research Project, a public interest law firm, which was the parent organization for the Children's Defense Fund (CDF).

Edelman is best known for her work with CDF, which she founded in 1973. CDF has worked tirelessly for four decades to "lift children out of poverty; protect them from abuse and neglect; and ensure their access to health care, quality education and a moral and spiritual foundation."