Children's rights advocate Marian Wright Edelman speaks at UTSA
(Oct. 24, 2002)--Attorney and children's rights advocate Marian Wright Edelman (center) was joined by UTSA President Ricardo Romo and UTSA Associate Professor Harriett Romo at a reception following Edelman's keynote address at the Downtown Campus. The address was part of the ChildCARE: Because We All Do! Early Care and Education Conference, which was organized by the Children's Defense Fund and hosted by UTSA.
Edelman, who founded the Washington-based CDF in 1973 and serves as the group's
president, was the first African American woman admitted to the Mississippi
Bar. She began her career in the mid 1960s as director of the NAACP Legal
Defense and Educational Fund office in Jackson. In l968, she moved to Washington,
D.C., as counsel for the Poor People's March that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. began organizing before his death. She founded the Washington Research
Project, the parent body of the CDF. Her numerous accomplishments and accolades
include the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award.
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© The University of Texas at San Antonio, 2002