Washington National Cathedral

The Sunday Forum: Critical Issues in the Light of Faith

The Very Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III, host

Cathedral Dean Samuel T. Lloyd III talks with Marian Wright Edelman about “Making the World Fit for Our Children.”

Edelman opens with a bleak assessment about the plight of children in the United States: “The great German Protestant theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, thought that the test of the morality—and I would add common sense—of a society is how it treats its children, and America flunks that test.”

Nationwide, a child drops out of school every ten seconds of every school day, Edelman reports. A majority of school children in grades 4, 8, and 12 do not perform at grade level in math or reading. Of the thirteen million poor children in the United States, 5.6 million live in extreme poverty. Edelman gives shocking statistics about teenage pregnancy, gun violence, and the lack of health insurance for children. Our nation has high rates of infant mortality and of low birth weight.

“Children don’t lobby. They don’t vote. They don’t make campaign contributions,” Edelman points out. “We adults have not come to understand that all children are our responsibility, not just our own.”

The faith community has not instilled the infinite value of each child’s life, Edelman finds. She believes that the gap between rich and poor is now wider than ever before in our nation’s history.

Edelman expresses concern for children in all income brackets, describing a “spiritual poverty and purposelessness” and a “disease of affluenza” that accompany the emphasis on consumerism and the weakening of family and social structures.

Lloyd and Edelman talk about the prophetic words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., drawing comparisons between the Vietnam War era and the current decade. Today, political will is needed to change public policy so that the needs of children are not lost amid two wars and a worldwide economic crisis.

Marian Wright Edelman is founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), a leading advocacy organization on behalf of children and families. During the Civil Rights era, she became the first black woman admitted to the Mississippi State Bar, directed the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund office in Jackson, Mississippi, and served as counsel for the Poor People's Campaign that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., began organizing before his death in 1968. Among Edelman’s many awards and recognitions are a MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award. Her latest book is The Sea is So Wide and My Boat is So Small: Charting a Course for the Next Generation.

About Marian Wright Edelman

Mrs. Edelman, a graduate of Spelman College and Yale Law School, began her career in the mid-60s when, as the first black woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar, she directed the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund office in Jackson, Mississippi. In l968, she moved to Washington, D.C., as counsel for the Poor People’s Campaign that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. began organizing before his death. She founded the Washington Research Project, a public interest law firm and the parent body of the Children’s Defense Fund. For two years she served as the Director of the Center for Law and Education at Harvard University and in 1973 began CDF.

Mrs. Edelman served on the Board of Trustees of Spelman College which she chaired from 1976 to 1987 and was the first woman elected by alumni as a member of the Yale University Corporation on which she served from 1971 to 1977. She has received many honorary degrees and awards including the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Prize, the Heinz Award, and a MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship. In 2000, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, and the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award for her writings which include eight books: Families in Peril: An Agenda for Social Change; The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours; Guide My Feet: Meditations and Prayers on Loving and Working for Children; Stand for Children; Lanterns: A Memoir of Mentors; Hold My Hand: Prayers for Building a Movement to Leave No Child Behind; I’m Your Child, God: Prayers for Our Children; and I Can Make a Difference: A Treasury to Inspire Our Children.

She is a board member of the Robin Hood Foundation, the Association to Benefit Children, and City Lights School and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

Marian Wright Edelman is married to Peter Edelman, a Professor at Georgetown Law School. They have three sons, Joshua, Jonah, and Ezra, two granddaughters, Ellika and Zoe, and two grandsons, Elijah and Levi.