Edelman to Receive Medal for Education Impact

Dean Kathleen McCartney has announced that Marian Wright Edelman will receive the Harvard Graduate School of Education Medal for Education Impact, the highest honor given by the Ed School. The medal is awarded to a person who is making a lasting difference in the field of education and on the lives of learners across the nation and beyond. Edelman will receive the honor on March 13 at an Askwith Forum focusing on school violence.

“Over the past six decades, Marian has been a leading voice for freedom, equal opportunity, and civil rights for all children. The Children’s Defense Fund, which she founded in 1973 and has led ever since, has sponsored major children's advocacy initiatives — including the Black Community Crusade for Children, the Freedom Schools summer and afterschool enrichment program, the Cradle-to-Prison Pipeline Campaign, and the Youth Advocacy Leadership Training program — that have improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in need,” said McCartney. “She has fought tirelessly for Head Start, for adequate health care for all children, for the rights of disabled children, and, most recently, for anti-gun legislation. Marian’s leadership has been critical in mobilizing community leaders, government officials, educators, parents, and young people to work together on behalf of children. She is most deserving of HGSE’s highest honor.”

Throughout her life, Edelman has advocated for disadvantaged Americans. As the first Black woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar, she directed the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund office in Jackson, Miss.; worked with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as counsel for his Poor People's Campaign; and dedicated her early career to defending the civil liberties of people struggling to overcome poverty and discrimination. CDF grew out of the Civil Rights Movement, following Edelman’s work in Washington Research Project – a public interest law firm she founded that monitored federal programs for low-income families.

As the founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund (CDF), she led the organization to become one of the nation’s strongest voices for children and families. CDF has continually challenged the country to raise standards by improving policies and programs for children. CDF’s Leave No Child Behind mission is to “ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities."

“The earliest planning for what would become the CDF took place at HGSE. CDF and HGSE have had a strong relationship since the beginning. The Medal for Education Impact has a very special significance for me as CDF celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, and I and all of my colleagues are so grateful to be receiving this honor,” Edelman said. “Many new laws and policies have been enacted since CDF began that help millions of children today, but so much remains to be done to ensure a level playing field for every child.  I believe that the greatest threat to America’s economic and military security comes from no enemy without but from our own failure to invest in healthy and educated children.  This will require an even bolder voice demanding new national investment priorities to ensure America has a competitive labor force, diplomatic corps and military in the 21st century world and becomes a beacon in a world desperately hungering for a moral example by its treatment of all of its children.”

Edelman has received significant praise for her work including hundreds of honorary degrees and many awards such as 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. A prominent author, Edelman received the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award for her writings, which include 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; I Can Make a Difference: A Treasury to Inspire Our Children; and The Sea Is So Wide and My Boat Is So Small: Charting a Course for the Next Generation.

The Medal for Education Impact honors practitioners, policymakers, and researchers who work across their individual spheres of influence and whose careers are dedicated to education opportunity, achievement, and success for all children. It recognizes those who have a transformative effect on the sector through their entrepreneurial spirit, innovative strategies, collaborative work, and superior leadership.