Marian Wright Edelman

Marian Wright Edelman is President Emerita of the Children's Defense Fund and its Action Council whose 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.

Blog Post List

Families & The Federal Budget Family Economic Security Health Care Politics & Policy

December 22, 2017

A friend shared a story I love about our mutual friend and mentor Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr. some years ago. It was Christmas Eve and the pews at New York City’s Riverside Church were packed. The Christmas pageant was underway and had come to the point at which the innkeeper was to turn away Mary and Joseph with the resounding line, “There’s no room at the inn!” Never mind that no figure of the innkeeper actually appears in scripture. We’ve all imagined him delivering the message of “no room” to the baby Jesus’s parents. And it seemed the perfect part for Tim, an earnest youth of the...

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Families & The Federal Budget Politics & Policy

December 18, 2017

The Sheep and the Goats “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something...

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Families & The Federal Budget Health Care Politics & Policy

December 15, 2017

As if our fight to stop the profoundly unjust Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was not enough, we must all work hard to ensure there will be no unfinished business as Congress works to wrap up the Continuing Resolution before December 22nd with all the crucial help children and other vulnerable populations need. Entire groups of children and families’ well-being are at risk without action. The Continuing Resolution must include five years extended funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP); home visiting support for infants and toddlers and other young children through the Maternal and...

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Families & The Federal Budget Family Economic Security Health Care Politics & Policy

December 8, 2017

…They have become great and rich; they have grown fat and sleek…. they judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless… and they do not defend the rights of the needy. --Jeremiah 5:27-28 Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the homeless child. --Isaiah 10:1-2 The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act recently passed on a nearly straight party line Republican vote in the U.S. Senate is, like the House-passed bill, a moral abomination. Their...

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Health Care Politics & Policy

December 1, 2017

The United States Congress and Trump Administration are engaged in a morally abominable massacre of the hopes, dreams and basic survival and development needs of millions of babies, children and youths in America – 13.2 million of whom are poor. Many are hungry, homeless, unequally educated, and denied the basic protections most privileged children and youths enjoy. Children of color – soon to be a majority of our child population – are disproportionately poor, at risk of dying and being denied the basic necessities of life. While a just nation would protect them, our Congressional leaders...

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Families & The Federal Budget Social & Emotional Development

November 22, 2017

On this Thanksgiving, I share again the beautiful prayer of great Black theologian Howard Thurman, A Litany of Thanksgiving, which my family reads together each year. Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on the values we embrace – especially this year as we feel so threatened by the negative forces of division and racial hatred. We must never give up our common vision of all that unites us. I hope we can all share this simple and profound sense of gratitude and the hope that “love and tenderness and all the inner graces of Almighty affection will cover the life of the children of God as the...

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Childcare & Early Education Families & The Federal Budget Health Care Politics & Policy

November 17, 2017

I hope you will speak up loudly and do whatever else is necessary to stop Congress’ hugely unjust Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that rewards billionaires at the expense of poor babies and corporations at the expense of vulnerable children. Millions of America’s children today are suffering from hunger, homelessness and hopelessness. Nearly 13.2 million children are poor – almost one in five. About 70 percent of them are children of color who will be a majority of our children by 2020. More than 1.2 million are homeless. About 14.8 million children struggle against hunger in food insecure households...

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Maternal Justice Realistic & Fair Wages

November 3, 2017

Hope is a song in a weary throat. Give me a song of hope And a world where I can sing it. Give me a song of faith And a people to believe in it. Give me a song of kindliness And a country where I can live it. Give me a song of hope and love And a brown girl’s heart to hear it. This verse is from the poem “Dark Testament” by the Rev. Dr. Anna Pauline “Pauli” Murray, a writer, scholar, Episcopal priest and civil rights warrior who spent her extraordinary life challenging barriers and systems of discrimination in all forms. I recently had the joy of being the first overnight guest at the new...

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Families & The Federal Budget

October 27, 2017

President Trump’s announcement yesterday reminded us all that the opioid crisis is a public health emergency, but in fact it is also a national emergency and we must do so much more. Daily we read articles and see searing reports about the opioid crisis. We’ve learned about the role of some doctors and drug companies in exacerbating it. We heard recently about how Congress was complicit in making it harder for the Drug Enforcement Administration to stop drug companies that were shipping suspicious amounts of opioids. We read about parents whose young adult sons and daughters end up in prison...

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Families & The Federal Budget Politics & Policy

October 20, 2017

As congregations of all faiths are observing the National Observance of Children’s Sabbaths® Celebration this weekend, “Moving Forward with Hope: Love and Justice for Every Child,” I offer prayers for all child advocates in this very challenging time for children and families and all of us when a half century of struggle for a more inclusive and just nation is at risk. The laboriously woven child and family safety net created over decades and not yet completed is on the brink of obliteration with the administration and its congressional allies seeking to destroy our government’s role and...

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Environmental Health Families & The Federal Budget

October 13, 2017

A National Public Radio story this week described a visit to Escuela Gaspar Vila Mayans, a public elementary school in the Rio Piedras neighborhood of San Juan, Puerto Rico: “‘PRESENTE!!!’ about 40 kids shout on cue — they’re the ones who are able to be present. More than three quarters of the student body isn’t here. Communications are spotty, so some may not be aware that this school has reopened. Principal Rita Barreto says many kids and their families are still dealing with the storm’s devastation, after losing ‘almost everything,’ she says, ‘the clothes, the furniture, the food.’ For...

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Health Care Politics & Policy

October 6, 2017

Dr. Lanre Falusi knows firsthand the anxiety families face when the future of their child’s health insurance is in jeopardy. A pediatrician at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Dr. Falusi recently had a routine visit from a seven-year-old patient with asthma. For the last few months this little girl has been fairly stable thanks to her daily controller and rescue medication covered through D.C.’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). But she often has tough winters and her mother was trying to plan ahead having heard CHIP’s future funding was uncertain. “That was...

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Health Care

September 22, 2017

It’s back. The assault on our children’s health coverage has been resurrected for a final last-minute attempt at passage and is even more dangerous and cruel than ever. The latest Graham (R-SC)-Cassidy (R-LA) revision of the health repeal bill feels like a Halloween movie cliché with a zombie-like villain that refuses to die if its threats to children, seniors, and more of America’s most vulnerable weren’t so deadly serious. It almost defies belief that after repeated failed attempts Republican Senators are trying once again not only to take away the benefits to children, families, other...

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Families & The Federal Budget Family Economic Security

September 15, 2017

We know what to do to end child poverty if we want to in rich America. The U.S. Census Bureau reported this week that the number of children in poverty declined slightly again for the second year, but that children shamefully are still our poorest age group. More than 13.2 million children – 18 percent of all children – were poor in 2016. Almost 70 percent of our poor children were children of color. Census data also showed the positive benefits government programs have for poor children with data from the Supplemental Poverty Measure which tracks the impact of government programs on family...

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Families & The Federal Budget Health Care

September 8, 2017

“In this dark day of discontent So many feel despair As poverty and dissidence Cause sadness everywhere.” On May 11, 1997 Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) began his remarks at a Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) conference with the lyrics above from “Freedom’s Light,” a song written by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), as the two together announced historic legislation that ultimately led to the creation of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) which has brought light, hope and health care to nearly 9 million low-income children in the form of affordable health insurance. Thanks to...

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Childcare & Early Education

September 1, 2017

As a new school year begins I want to share prayers for our children, all of them, and for caring adults to be God’s hands and feet standing for children everywhere in these very difficult times in our nation and around our shared world. We especially pray for every child living in cities, towns, rural areas, neighborhoods and homes devastated by winds and floods without a safe space to escape to or a place to call home and whose lives have been upended by forces they cannot control. ** We pray and stand for children blessed by parents who care and for children without a parent or anyone who...

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Immigration

August 25, 2017

I recently had the privilege of meeting five outstanding high school students the Children’s Defense Fund-Ohio’s Beat the Odds® program was honoring for overcoming tremendous adversity, demonstrating academic excellence and giving back to their communities. One of these inspiring young people was Sara Abou Rashed. Sara has witnessed unimaginable violence. At age 13, Sara experienced shock and horror as a bomb exploded near her school in Syria, shattering classroom windows and throwing the entire school into chaos. Despite daily dangers, she pushed through her fears and continued to attend...

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Politics & Policy Social & Emotional Development

August 18, 2017

“I remember: it happened yesterday, or eternities ago. A young Jewish boy discovered the Kingdom of Night. I remember his bewilderment, I remember his anguish. It all happened so fast. The ghetto. The deportation. The sealed cattle car. The fiery altar upon which the history of our people and the future of mankind were meant to be sacrificed. “I remember he asked his father: ‘Can this be true? This is the twentieth century, not the Middle Ages. Who would allow such crimes to be committed? How could the world remain silent?’ “And now the boy is turning to me. ‘Tell me,’ he asks, ‘what have you...

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Childcare & Early Education Family Economic Security

August 11, 2017

Have you ever had the chance to make a small difference in helping change someone’s life for the better? Nothing brings greater joy. Since 1990 the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF)’s Beat the Odds® program has honored over 600 outstanding high school students who have overcome huge hardships in their lives, demonstrated academic excellence, and given back to their communities. Their grit and resilience are overwhelming and remind me that none of us have a right to give up on any child or youth. CDF holds awards events for these amazing students where they receive college scholarships and...

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Childcare & Early Education

August 4, 2017

Below is a prayer for child advocates. Teachers and school administrators are always on the front lines advocating for children so maybe one of them could use this today as s/he is preparing for the new school year. They are not alone. Parents and grandparents and all who care for children and strive to be good role models for them are child advocates. Doctors, social workers and others who work with and serve children are child advocates. Librarians and coaches are child advocates. Political leaders who put children first are child advocates. And all are joined by the millions of people,...

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Marian Wright Edelman

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Blog Post List

Making Room at the Inn

"Is America a Goat? Has Congress No Shame or Moral Decency Left?"

"Congress’ Urgent Unfinished Business for Children"

"I Didn't Make This World For You"

An Abominable Massacre of Poor Children's Futures

A Litany of Thanksgiving

Why America May Go to Hell!

Pauli Murray's Song of Hope

Children and the Opioid Crisis

We Can and Must Win for Children!

Healing the Gaping Open Wound: An Urgent Call for More Aid and Fair Treatment for Puerto Rico

Congress Is Holding CHIP and Children Hostage

The Continuing Mean Assault on Our Children’s Health

A Prayer to End Child Poverty in Our Time

CONGRESS: ACT ON CHIP

Praying and Standing for Children

Welcome to America

Please Take Sides: This Is No Time for Silence or Inaction!

A Success Story to Inspire Us All!

A Child Advocate’s Beatitudes