Children's Defense Fund president speaking at Synod
Marian Wright Edelman, president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund and best-selling author, will present a keynote address on Monday afternoon, June 25, during the UCC's 26th General Synod.
Under her leadership, the Children's Defense Fund has become the United States' strongest voice for children and families.
"Ms. Edelman is a relentless advocate for children, the valuable members of our society whose voices are rarely heard in our continuous struggle for justice," says the Rev. M. Linda Jaramillo, Executive Minister of the UCC Justice and Witness Ministries.
"If we don't stand up for children, then we don't stand for much," says Edelman.
A lifelong advocate for disadvantaged Americans, Edelman has worked to decrease teenage pregnancy, increase Medicaid coverage for poor children and secure government funding for childcare and early education programs such as Head Start.
"Service is the rent we pay to be living," Edelman adds. "It is the very purpose of life and not something you do in your spare time."
Edelman served as counsel for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Poor People Campaign. She founded the Washington Research Project, a public interest law firm and the parent body of the Children's Defense Fund. Edelman established the CDF in 1973. She also served as the Director of the Center for Law and Education at Harvard University.
"If you don't like the way the world is, you change it," says Edelman. "You have an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time."
Among her books is the best seller, The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours.
Among the many awards she has received are the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Prize, the Heinz Award, and a MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship. In 2000, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, and the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award for her writings.
"I'm doing what I think I was put on this earth to do," Edelman reflects. "And I'm really grateful to have something that I'm passionate about and that I think is profoundly important."