Children’s Defense Fund Founder Marian Wright Edelman Will Step Down as President

The Children’s Defense Fund announced today that Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the child-advocacy organization, will step down as president. She will move into a new role as president emerita and will support the board’s search for her replacement. A spokeswoman said there is not a set timeline for the selection process.

Max Lesko, chief of staff, will become national executive director by the end of the year and will oversee day-to-day operations during the search for Edelman’s successor. Lesko has served in the Obama administration as chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

Republican Senator Orrin Hatch noted that Edelman was a force behind numerous important federal laws to protect children. Angela Glover Blackwell, a co-chair of the Board of Directors, said Edelman also created the framework for many state laws that now protect children and families.

“All we are and all we do starts with her, and that is a tremendous legacy,” Blackwell said, “but she is not done yet, and we, thankfully, are not yet done receiving the benefit of her wisdom and leadership.”

Early Activism

Edelman is a graduate of Spelman College, a historically black college and Yale Law School. She began her civil-rights work in the mid-1960s and was the first black woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar. There she directed the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund office in Jackson. In 1968, she moved to Washington, D.C., and was counsel for the Poor People’s Campaign, which Martin Luther King Jr. began organizing shortly before his death.

The following year, Edelman began the Washington Research Project, a public-interest law firm that monitored federal programs for low-income families and, out of that effort she founded the Children’s Defense Fund in 1973.

“I first heard of Marian back in 1960, when she was a student. And people would say, ‘Ask Marian. Get in touch with Marian,’ ” said John Lewis, civil-rights icon and Democratic congressman from Georgia in a news release. “She emerged as a leader. Brave, courageous, just smart. She wanted to do something not just about civil rights but about children — all children. If Martin Luther King Jr. could come back and see what Marian Wright Edelman is doing, he’d be very proud.”

‘Genius’ Award Winner

As president of the Children’s Defense Fund, Wright Edelman led an effort called Leave No Child Behind, which helped her win a MacArthur “genius” fellowship in 1985. The program’s goal is to ensure that every child has a successful passage into adulthood, she said, adding that the program “has never been more important than it is today during these perilous times for children and for our nation.”

Hillary Clinton, who was once a lawyer and board chair for the Children’s Defense Fund, was among those who heaped praise on Edelman, saying, “I have been inspired by Marian Wright Edelman since I first met her in 1969. Watching and working with her is one of the greatest gifts anyone has ever given me.”

Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative and Children’s Defense Fund board member, called her “the most passionate, strategic, and effective advocate for helping poor children and their families in the nation.”

Reese Witherspoon, actress and former board member added, “Her passion for children’s rights will always burn bright in my heart.”