The NYU Annual Survey of American Law is honored to invite you to the dedication of our 76th Volume to Marian Wright Edelman. The ceremony will take place at the Law School, on Tuesday, February 26, at 5:30 p.m. in Greenberg Lounge, located on the first floor of Vanderbilt Hall. A reception will follow.
Please RSVP here.
Mrs. Edelman is a leading public interest advocate, non-profit founder and director, and a prolific author. She has shaped state and national policies for decades and has improved the lives of countless individuals. We are fortunate to dedicate this volume’s scholarship to Mrs. Edelman and to recognize such a dedicated and inspirational member of our national life.
Mrs. Edelman has been a fierce and effective advocate for disadvantaged Americans throughout her professional life. After graduating from Yale Law School, she became the first black woman admitted to the Mississippi State Bar and worked as the Director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in Jackson, Mississippi. Mrs. Edelman went on to become counsel for the Poor People’s Campaign and founder of the Children’s Defense Fund and the Washington Research Project, a public interest law firm. Her long list of accolades includes the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, and the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award for her prolific writings.
Mrs. Edelman currently sits on the boards of the Robin Hood Foundation and the Association to Benefit Children and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
We are truly honored to have Mrs. Edelman as a part of our 76th Volume.
Tributes will be delivered by:
Olivia Golden, Executive Director, Center for Law and Social Policy; Former Director of Programs and Policy, Children’s Defense Fund
Martin Guggenheim, Fiorello LaGuardia Professor of Clinical Law, New York University School of Law
Elaine R. Jones, Former President and Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
Sara Rosenbaum, Harold and Jane Hirsh Professor of Health Law and Policy, George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health; Former Child Health Director, Children’s Defense Fund
Robert Schwartz, Co-Founder and Executive Director Emeritus, Juvenile Law Center; Beck Chair in Law, Temple University Beasley School of Law
John Sexton, President Emeritus, New York University; Dean Emeritus and Benjamin F. Butler Professor of Law, New York University School of Law
James D. Weil, President, Food Research & Action Center; Former Program Director and General Counsel, Children’s Defense Fund