Marian Wright Edelman Oral History Interview

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

An oral history consisting of a single digital video recording (2018.78.4.1). It was collected as part of the Poor People’s Campaign Interviews. In this oral history interview, Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president emerita of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), discusses her early life and work as a civil rights lawyer and activist, the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968, and her work with the CDF. The interview begins with a discussion of Mrs. Edelman’s upbringing and family life in Bennettsville, South Carolina, in which she identifies some of the experiences and relationships that informed her lifelong commitment to social justice work. Mrs. Edelman then discusses her time at Spelman College in Atlanta, GA, and her experiences in Europe (France, Switzerland, and the USSR) during her junior year. Turning to the 1960s, Mrs.

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