Marian Wright Edelman

Marian Wright Edelman (1939–) — founder and longtime president of the Children's Defense Fund, and one of the most important civil rights and child advocacy figures in American life. The first Black woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar, a veteran of the civil rights movement, and a lifelong voice for children living in poverty.

Elliot & Patti Daley is a colleague of Edelman's on several boards. More significantly, she has been a three-decade working partner of Elliot and Patti's daughter Shannon at the Children's Defense Fund.

Cross-Connections

• Hillary Rodham Clinton — Hillary worked as a staff attorney at the Children's Defense Fund early in her career, under Edelman; their relationship goes back to the 1970s
• Spoke at Joy Anderson's graduation from Wesleyan University.