June 6 - BlackFacts.com Black History Minute

BlackFacts.com: Learn/Teach/Create Black History

BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 6.

Marian Wright Edelman was born.

She is an American attorney and civil rights activist who founded the Children’s Defense Fund in 1973.

After work registering African American voters in Mississippi, she moved to New York City as a staff attorney for the Legal Defense and Educational Fund of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Edelman was the first African American woman admitted to The Mississippi Bar in 1964, and the first Black woman elected on the Yale board of trustees in 1971.

In 1973, she founded the Children's Defense Fund as a voice for poor children, children of color, and children with disabilities.

The organization has served as an advocacy and research center for children's issues, documenting the problems and possible solutions to children in need.

She also worked to persuade United States Congress to overhaul foster care, support adoption, improve child care and protect children who are disabled, homeless, abused or neglected.

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