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
Marian Wright Edelman quotes about
children community
I also grew up with community co-parents who looked out for each other. They looked out for children and tried to be the hands of God. They tried to live their faith.
family education children
Parents have become so convinced that educators know what is best for their children that they forget that they themselves are really the experts.
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.
children lying book
Much of what I do now stems from my rage at segregation and discrimination. I can't stand to see children not able to do anything, anybody not able to do what they can do. The daily lessons of exclusion, having hand-me-down books in schools, of seeing ambulances turn away and not give health care for people lying in the streets who are migrant workers. Everything I do today stems from that segregated existence.
success determination giving-up
Whoever said anybody has a right to give up?
children community needs
It really takes a community to raise children, no matter how much money one has. Nobody can do it well alone. And it's the bedrock security of community that we and our children need.
children two class
God did not create two classes of children or human beings-only one.
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.
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.
perseverance hard-work waiting
Don't wait for, expect, or rely on favors. Count on earning them by hard work and perseverance.
growing-up thinking rejection
I wasn't thinking about history. I was thinking about how we were going to end segregation at lunch counters in Atlanta, Georgia.We would have never thought about making history, we just thought: Here is our chance to get out our sense of rejection at this kind of racial discrimination. I don't know that there was a time that anybody growing up in the South wasn't enraged about being segregated and being discriminated against.
commitment lists there-comes-a-time
There comes a time when you roll up your sleeves and put yourself at the top of your commitment list.
children believe people
As I contemplate the kind of future I want for children-my own and other people's-I believe we must look inward to God for guidance and strength and backward to draw on the values and legacies of our families, ancestors, and communities.