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[Pages S5472-S5473]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I wish to recognize Marian Wright
Edelman, founder and president emerita of the Children's Defense Fund,
for her powerful advocacy for racial justice and on behalf of children,
the poor, and all marginalized people.
On September 18, the Coalition on Human Needs will honor Mrs. Edelman
as an extraordinary Human Needs Hero. Mrs. Edelman's storied career
spans several epochal chapters of American history. Her activism and
leadership led to the creation of programs such as Head Start,
federally funded child care, the Children's Health Insurance Program,
and tax credits for low-income families. Through the Children's Defense
Fund and in her earlier work, Mrs. Edelman led in opening doors for
children with disabilities, overhauling child welfare services, and
expanding educational opportunities and health care for all children.
From her early fight to ensure that nutrition aid reached the poorest
families to her ongoing advocacy to protect children of color and all
children from the ravages of poverty, Marian Wright Edelman has
assisted tens of millions of children living in poverty and touched
countless lives for the better.
Mrs. Edelman grew up the daughter of a Baptist minister, who raised
her with a strong emphasis on the value of faith, family, and
education. These values would guide her through the challenges of
entering the public sphere as an African-American woman. Mrs. Edelman's
advocacy began while she was a student at Spelman College, where she
was an active participant of the civil rights movement. Upon graduating
from Yale Law School, Mrs. Edelman became the first African-American
woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar. In Mississippi, she practiced
with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and was an integral
part of the Freedom Summer of 1964. She was instrumental in exposing
the plight of child poverty in the South and throughout the United
States, culminating in Senator Robert Kennedy's historic trip to
witness the plight of hungry children in Mississippi.
Subsequently, Mrs. Edelman served as counsel to the Rev. Martin
Luther King's Poor People's Campaign. In 1973,
[[Page S5473]]
she founded the Children's Defense Fund, an organization that to this
day continues to work tirelessly to ensure child poverty will one day
be a thing of the past. The CDF's ``Leave No Child Behind'' mission is
to ensure every child ``a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a
Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to
adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.'' To that
end, CDF continues the tradition of Freedom Schools in 28 States and
empowers outstanding high school students who have overcome tremendous
adversity through its Beat the Odds program.
Through her work, Mrs. Edelman has achieved international renown,
garnering numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
She has authored several books on her life and our Nation's shared
responsibility to children.
Mrs. Edelman has been a guiding voice in much of my own work in
Congress, and I know that countless other Members of Congress would say
the same. This is particularly true with respect to my involvement in
the Family First Prevention Services Act, a law that changed the way
our Nation supports child welfare services by expanding the largest
Federal program--title IV-E of the Social Security Act which pays for
foster care services--to also support services for families to help
prevent the need for foster care in the first place. This legislative
victory simply would not have occurred were it not for the strong and
steady voice of Mrs. Edelman and her colleagues at the Children's
Defense Fund.
Marian Wright Edelman will long be remembered as one of the greatest
champions of children in our Nation's history, and so it is my honor
and privilege today to recognize Marian Wright Edelman.
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