BENNETTSVILLE— A native daughter of Bennettsville, Marian Wright Edelman is more than a name emblazoned on the local library. Her accomplishments, a series of firsts for both women, and women of color in particular, Edelman has become one of the country’s best-known voices for civil rights and advocates for children. Throughout her career, Edelman has earned several awards and recognitions, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000. Perhaps her greatest honor, her birthday, June 6, is now celebrated as Marian Wright Edelman Day annually by the state of South Carolina thanks to a resolution introduced by State Representatives Jason Luck and Jackie Hayes, and Senators Tameika Issac-Devine and JD Chaplin.
Growing up in Bennettsville
Growing up in 1940s Bennettsville, Marian Wright Edelman is the daughter of Arthur Jerome Wright, a Baptist minister, and Maggie Leola Bowen. Her father helped establish Shiloh Baptist Church.
Edelman is the youngest of five in her family and education was treated as both a responsibility and a path forward. Her father repeatedly urged her to learn as much as she could, and even after he died of a heart attack when she was 14, that lesson remained with her, shaping her future.
Getting educated
She attended Marlboro Training High School in Bennettsville and graduated in 1956. After graduation, she packed up her bags and headed to Atlanta, Georgia, to study at Spelman College, where she continued to stand out for her academic work—just as her father had hoped.
Edelman’s strong performance earned her a Merrill scholarship, which opened the door to her studying abroad in France and Switzerland.
While studying in the Soviet Union, Edelman witnessed firsthand how America’s race problem is viewed internationally. She saw the Soviet Union using America’s treatment of its black citizens as a propaganda tool and recognized her country’s racial stain for what it is: a national disgrace.
Fueled by this experience, Edelman stepped directly into the Civil Rights Movement when she returned to Spelman in her senior year. Not surviving her activism unscathed, Edelman was arrested with 77 others during an organized sit-in at segregated restaurants in Atlanta. Seeing her arrest as the opposite of warning, this incident only affirmed Edelman’s fight for civil rights.
Edelman went on to graduate as valedictorian from Spelman and later studied law at Yale and earned her Bachelor of Law degree in 1963.
Being a leader
Among many firsts for Edelman, in 1965 she earned the distinction of being the first African American woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar, a breakthrough that mattered both professionally and historically.
While working in Mississippi, Edelman observed Black children living in squalor and situations of severe poverty. Visiting the rural communities of the state, Edelman experienced Black families surviving without reliable and consistent access to healthcare, nutrition, or education.
Deciding to take her voice to the national stage in 1968, Edelman moved to Washington, D.C. and founded the Washington Research Project, a public-interest law firm.
By 1971, she was being named as the first Black woman elected to Yale’s board of trustees, a shared personal accomplishment that still resonates today with generations of women.
With her eyes fully open to the needs of the nation’s children, Edelman also helped create the Head Start program, a federally funded initiative that provides free early childhood education, health services, and family support for children from low-income families. The goal is simple but important: give children a stronger start before they enter school and later life. The Head Start program has proven to be one of the earliest and most meaningful achievements of another organization Edelman founded: the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) in 1973.
Edelman built the CDF into a national advocacy that defends and supports children from low-income families, children of color, and children who are born with or later develop disabilities. Over time, the organization Edelman founded has broadened into a research center and an advocacy institution.
As the Children’s Defense Fund’s most recognizable public voice, Edelman challenged congressional leaders to focus on making improvements to foster care, encourage adoption and expand child-care support. She also pushed for the child tax credit to be extended in October 2021.
Building a home
Typically sightseeing with the nation’s top officials is not counted among the leading opportunities to meet the love of your life, but for Peter Edelman, an assistant then to Kennedy, and Marian, Joseph S. Clark’s and Robert F. Kennedy’s 1967 tour of the Mississippi Delta was just that.
Falling head over heels, the two love birds wed on July 14, 1968, making them only the third interracial couple to marry in Virginia.
The couple settled down and Peter eventually became a law professor at Georgetown University. Together, the Edelman’s raised three successful children—Joshua, Jonah, and Ezra. The couple’s children have all found success in the fields of education and entertainment— all three living testaments to the words of Edelman’s father.
Edelman continues to live her life proving every day the value of not only having a voice and a mind, but of using it. Her legacy of accomplishments will forever inspire, ensuring her father’s long-ago encouragement to “never stop learning” will always live on through each heart and mind she touches. Edelman’s life has paved the way for many others—all shades, races, and creeds—to find their own piece of the American Dream; the ultimate adventure found in a book. Where can knowledge take you?