Children’s Advocate Followed Her Parents’ Example

As founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund, a leading advocacy organization for children, Marian Wright Edelman is a warrior of words.

She champions the causes of disadvantaged Americans through her lobbying efforts. She uses her research, writing and speaking skills to turn the public’s attention to issues such as teen pregnancy, the juvenile-justice system, homelessness, poverty and violence.

Edelman has been credited with being instrumental in the passage of the 1990 Act for Better Child Care. She has been awarded a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. But Edelman is not one to repose upon her laurels.

“I have a passion for what I believe in, and I will never stop persisting,” she said. “I’m very determined to help this country become its best self.”

Edelman, 61, attributes her perseverance and tireless advocacy to the influence her mentors and role models had upon her. She refers to these people--her parents, elders, community leaders and teachers--as “lanterns,” because they lighted the way for her.

Her father and mother instilled in her “the importance of serving and giving,” she said. They had high expectations for her, and instructed her to find a purpose in life that would enable her to “leave the world better than I found it,” she wrote in “Lanterns: A Memoir of Mentors” (Beacon Press, 1999). Having a career and earning top wages were not enough, they said. And they guided Edelman not only with their words, but by their actions.

Both parents ministered to those less fortunate in the family’s South Carolina community. As believers in self-help, they did what they could to diminish the sting of prejudice on their neighbors.

“My parents tried to be good moral examples,” she said.

Because African American children were barred from playing in public parks, Edelman’s father, a Baptist pastor, built a playground with a skating rink and swings for them. Since the children could not eat in “whites-only” restaurants, Edelman’s mother opened a canteen, where they could have soda and snacks.

For inspiration, Edelman’s father frequently took her to hear renowned African American lecturers, preachers and educators offer words of hope and encouragement to their community. He encouraged her to get an outstanding education and to be disciplined in all that she did. Most of all, he urged her not to give up merely because something was difficult.

Community elders also nurtured Edelman in young adulthood, serving as extended family members and sage advisors.

“I was blessed because so many of these adults spent so much time with children,” she said. “Many of these great community women had incredible grit and courage. They never gave up, which is why I’ll never give up either.”

They counseled her to do more than was necessary and to disregard the low expectations that many in society had set for African American women. They asked her to be truthful, and to take responsibility for her actions. If she erred in judgment, they told her, she should be bold enough to admit and correct her mistakes.

This close-knit fellowship helped Edelman weather the ugliness of racial prejudice. She grew up at a time when African Americans in her community were excluded from public swimming pools, ordered to sit at the backs of buses and had to drink from segregated water fountains.

Such injustices horrified Edelman, and, in keeping with her mentors’ teachings, she realized she should fight them in whatever way she could. A graduate of Yale Law School, Edelman became the first African American woman admitted to the Mississippi bar. She began doing what her father called “helping work,” civil-rights activism.

She registered voters, defended jailed activists, and was arrested during an attempt to desegregate Atlanta restaurants.

She forced formerly “whites-only” schools to admit African American children, but then saw that her precedent-setting actions brought new woes: The children’s homes were shot at; their parents sometimes lost their jobs and credit; the children were harassed and taunted at school.

During the 1960s, she attended several lectures by Martin Luther King Jr. She said she learned from him “the courage to be afraid, and to proceed to act, despite fear, uncertainty and fatigue.”

She read books about another role model, Sojourner Truth, who spoke out against slavery. She took to heart an anecdote about Truth that showed the woman’s fortitude. When a heckler shouted to Truth, “Why, I don’t care more for your talk than I do for the bite of a flea,” Truth responded, “Perhaps not, but the Lord willing, I’ll keep you scratching.”

“She has likened us children’s advocates to fleas, who have to keep picking and picking until [we] get people to move, to act,” said Stevanne Auerbach, director of the Institute for Childhood Resources in San Francisco, who has known Edelman for 27 years. “Her role as a major player [in this field] has not been the easiest one to play. She works tirelessly to bring about a change of awareness on everyone’s part about the issues affecting children.”

In 1973, Edelman launched the Children’s Defense Fund, in order to keep America’s awareness on the plight of poor families.

“It’s amazing to me that it’s been so hard to get this country to do what’s right for its children,” Edelman said. “I think it’s time for us to build a movement. Children are not a partisan issue.”

In the 1980s, Edelman successfully lobbied to increase Medicaid coverage for children.

She also encouraged Americans to consider social services not as wasteful charity but as preventive investment: “One dollar up front prevents the spending of many dollars down the road,” she said.

The mother of three adult sons, Edelman encourages her children to respect others based on character, personal effort and achievement, not status, wealth or race. She quotes Martin Luther King Jr., who, like her, became discouraged that many in American society “judge success by the value of our salaries or the size of our automobiles, rather than by the quality of our service and relationships to humanity.”

Currently, Edelman said, our country faces a role-model deficit. When she was a child, she had a rich network of caring adults to learn from.

Today’s children, lacking mentors, often turn to Hollywood film characters, gangsta rappers, vapid celebrities and neighborhood toughs for inspiration, she said.

One of her projects is to persuade adults to become real-life heroes, to act honorably, selflessly offer service and care for children in their community.

“I’m trying to be worthy of my children,” she said. “I want to live so that my children know I have integrity.”

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Lessons for Life

For 28 years, Marian Wright Edelman, founding director of the Children’s Defense Fund, has championed the cause of disadvantaged children. Following are some tips--which Edelman calls “lessons for life”--from her book, “The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours” (HarperPerennial, 1993), for individuals who wish to be effective in their work and personal lives.

1. There is no free lunch. Don’t feel entitled to anything you don’t sweat and struggle for. While a college degree today may get you in the door, it will not get you to the top of the career ladder or keep you there. You must work your way up--hard and continuously. Each of us must take the initiative to create our opportunities, not waiting around for favors. We must not assume a door is closed--we must push on it. We must not assume that if it was closed yesterday it’s closed today.

2. Set goals and work quietly and systematically toward them. We must all try to resist quick-fix, simplistic answers and easy gains, which often disappear just as quickly as they come.

3. Assign yourself. My Daddy used to ask us whether the teacher had given us any homework. If we said no, he’d say, “Well, assign yourself.” Don’t wait around for your boss or your co-worker to direct you to do what you’re able to figure out and do on your own. Don’t do just as little as you can to get by.

4. Never work just for money or for power. They won’t save your soul or build a decent family or help you sleep at night. Don’t condone or tolerate moral corruption, whether it’s found in high or low places. It is not OK to cheat or lie, even if countless corporate or public officials and everybody you know do. Don’t give anyone the proxy for your conscience.

5. Don’t be afraid of taking risks or of being criticized. An anonymous sage said, “If you don’t want to be criticized, don’t say anything, do anything or be anything.” Don’t be afraid of failing. It’s the way you learn to do things right. It doesn’t matter how many times you fall down. What matters is how many times you get up.