For Immediate ReleaseMonday, December 3, 2001
Washington, D.C.-- Bennettsville, South Carolina native, Marian Wright Edelman, has been named the 2001 Citizen of the Carolinas Award winner by the Charlotte, North Carolina Chamber of Commerce and Duke Energy. As founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund, Mrs. Edelman will receive the award at the Chamber's Annual Meeting, which will be held at the Charlotte Convention Center on Tuesday, December 4 at 7:00 p.m.
As a tireless, life long advocate for America's children and families, Edelman has dedicated her entire career to helping those less fortunate and started the Children's Defense Fund in 1973. Since then, the Washington D.C.-based organization has become the nation's leading voice for children.
"Our children are a critical part of society," said Chamber Chair Edward Dolby of Bank of America. "Marian's work on behalf of the disadvantaged has helped raise the quality of life for innumerable kids."
The Citizen of the Carolinas Award is bestowed each year by the Chamber on a citizen from North or South Carolina who has brought positive recognition to the two states. More than 2,000 are expected to attend this year's meeting, whose special topic will be "Leadership, Vision, Call to Action to Make a Difference." Edelman, who last year received the nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, will speak at the event discussing her lifelong commitment to children's issues.
A graduate of Spelman College and Yale Law School, she 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. A job as counsel for the Poor People's March, organized by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., brought her to Washington, D.C. in 1968.
Edelman is also a prolific writer having authored five books, including the New York Times bestseller, The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours and Lanterns: A Memoir of Mentors.
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