BENNETTSVILLE — Following the South Carolina General Assembly’s passage of H. 5456, designating June 6, 2026, as Marian Wright Edelman Day, E3 Foundation | Educate, Empower, Elevate, the organization that authored the resolution, is convening leaders, legislators and local community members to recognize the Bennettsville native, pioneering civil rights attorney and founder of the Children’s Defense Fund for her lifetime of leadership advancing opportunity, justice and well-being for America’s children.
The public dedication, scheduled for Wednesday, September 2, at 4 p.m. at the Marian Wright Edelman Public Library in Bennettsville, will feature remarks from South Carolina legislators, Children’s Defense Fund representatives and E3 Foundation leadership. The ceremony is both a celebration of what Ms. Edelman made possible and an invitation to consider what carrying that legacy forward requires of each new generation.
“Marian Wright Edelman stands in a powerful lineage of Black women from South Carolina who understood education as a pathway to freedom, opportunity and collective progress,” said Audrey KS Lane, founding partner and executive director of E3 Foundation. “Her life’s work has transformed generations of children and families, and Freedom Schools continue that work today. Establishing Marian Wright Edelman Day ensures that South Carolina not only recognizes one of its own, but continues to shine a light on the movement she built and the work still before us.”
From Marian Wright Edelman’s early days in Bennettsville, in a community that nurtured her commitment to faith, learning, service and the well-being of children, through her education at Spelman College and Yale Law School and her historic achievement as the first Black woman admitted to the Mississippi State Bar, Edelman’s spirit of compassion, connection and community remained central.
In 1973, Marian Wright Edelman’s passion and purpose led her to found the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), building a national movement grounded in the belief that every child deserves a safe, healthy and fair start in life and the opportunity to grow with dignity, hope and joy. Since 1995, CDF’s flagship program, Freedom Schools, has served more than 240,000 K–12 Scholars through an intergenerational Servant Leadership model, training more than 20,000 young adults in leadership, cultural affirmation and social justice.
For E3 Foundation, pursuing the statewide designation was about more than commemorating an extraordinary South Carolinian. It was about ensuring that the values long championed by Edelman would be seen, celebrated and carried forward for generations to come.
“Marian Wright Edelman’s work reflects what we believe deeply at E3: every child deserves the opportunity to learn, thrive and believe a bright future is possible,” said LaTisha Vaughn, Founding Partner and Chief Programs Officer of E3 Foundation. “This designation is about honoring what she has built, but it is also about what her example asks of us now—to create liberating spaces for Black children, strengthen educational equity and continue building the collective power necessary to change systems for our communities.”
Marian Wright Edelman Day asks South Carolina to do more than remember. It calls on residents, educators, students, families and community organizations to live the legacy—through service, care for one another, investment in children and families, and sustained action to advance opportunity and justice for every child. From her Bennettsville beginnings to the national movement she built for America’s children, this designation affirms an enduring responsibility: the work of building a better future for children belongs to all of us.