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For Immediate Release
January 17, 2006

Children's Defense Fund's President and Founder Honors Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Marian Wright Edelman to speak at New York Avenue Presbyterian’s monthly War, Peace and Justice Forum

Contact:  David Ruffin, (202) 662-3613, druffin@childrensdefense.org, or
Jodi Reid, (202) 662-3602, jreid@childrensdefense.org

Washington, DC Four days following our national holiday, celebrated on January 16 this year, commemorating the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church will honor Dr. King's memory with a presentation by one of his close associates, national child advocate Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund.  As part of the church's monthly Friday Noon Forum on issues of War, Peace and Justice, Mrs. Edelman's address on Friday, January 20, at 12 Noon will be entitled "Stand Up for Children Now!" 

A graduate of Spelman College and Yale Law School, Marian Wright Edelman 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 1968 she moved to Washington, D.C. to serve as counsel for the Poor People's Campaign that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. began organizing before his death.  Here she began the Washington Research Project, a public interest law firm and the parent body of the Children's Defense Fund (CDF), founded in 1973.  Under her guidance and inspiration, today CDF is recognized as the strongest advocacy organization in the nation for disadvantaged children and their families .   

Mrs. Edelman's hour-long Forum presentation and discussion will be followed by a book signing of her latest work, I Can Make a Difference: A Treasury to Inspire Our Children, a compilation of "timeless stories, poems, songs, quotations, and folktales that speak to all children, to let them know that they can make a difference in today's world."  A New York Times Bestselling author, lecturer and proud social agitator, Edelman has received over 100 honorary degrees and numerous awards including the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award for her writings and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award as well as the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Prize, the Heinz Award and a MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship. For more than 30 years, the Children’s Defense Fund has worked to inform people about issues critical to children and their families.

Upholding Dr. King's legacy of nonviolence, this event marks New York Avenue Presbyterian Church's sixth presentation in this year’s Friday Forum series focusing on the theme of violence.   

New York Avenue Presbyterian Church is located at 1313 New York Avenue, N.W., two blocks from Metro Center.  For more information about the Friday Forum, contact the Pastor, Rev. Dr. Roger Gench, at (202) 393-3703 or Parish Associate, Rev. J. Gary Campbell, at 301-587-7922; or email rgench@earthlink.net or garychess@earthlink.net.