An Interview with Marian Wright Edelman

Abstract

Marian Wright Edelman, as Director of the Children's Defense Fund of the Washington Research Project, has added child advocacy to her agenda of action for social change. Beginning as an attorney in the civil rights movement, she directed Jackson, Mississippi's office of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund,Inc. Headstart, children, and education were large issues for community development,and her involvement with the Child Development Group of Mississippi focused her concern on the welfare of poor and minority children. One of the principal architects of the Comprehensive Child Development Act of 1971, she has broadened her commitment to advocate the rights of all children. She has selected several specific areas on which to concentrate: the exclusion of children from school, labeling and treatment of children with special needs, the use of children in medical experimentation, their right to privacy with regard to school and juvenile court records, reform of the juvenile justice system, and children's right to day care of high quality. Ms. Edelman talked about these and other issues with HER.