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Born June 6, 1939, in Bennettsville, SC
In 1964 Marian Wright Edelman became the first Black woman admitted to the bar in Mississippi. A graduate of Spelman College and Yale Law School, she directed the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in Mississippi and New York from 1964 to 1968. She is the founder, president, and spokesperson of the Children’s Defense Fund. Since 1973, this advocacy group has lobbied in support of health, welfare, and justice for children and their families. She was a recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 1985. Among many other honors, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000.