March 23 — Butler's "Celebration of Diversity" Series Concludes Season with Marian Wright Edelman

Marian Wright Edelman, lifelong advocate for disadvantaged Americans, is founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund.

When: Monday March 23, 7:30 PM
Where: Butler University, Clowes Memorial Hall

Admission is free and open to the public, but a ticket is required. Tickets are available at the Clowes box office, (317) 940-6444.

Under Edelman's leadership, CDF has become the nation’s strongest voice for children and families. She began her career in the mid-1960s when, as the first black woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar, she directed the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund office in Jackson, Miss. 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.

Her awards include 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.