I feel very lucky to have grown up having interaction with adults who were making change but who were far from perfect beings. That feeling of not being paralyzed by your incredible inadequacy as a human being, which I feel every day, is a part of the legacy that I've gotten from so many of the adult elders.
Marian Wright EdelmanThe civil-rights movement was completely impossible to achieve. But look at what ordinary people were able to do because they were willing to sacrifice their lives to stay with it. They didn't expect a political process to respond to them. They made the political process respond to them. To say "It's so bad I won't bother" is to give up on your children and give up on your future.
Marian Wright EdelmanWhen I fight about what is going on in the neighborhood, or when I fight about what is happening to other peopleโs children, Iโm doing that because I want to leave a community and a world that is better than the one I found.
Marian Wright EdelmanThere comes a time when you roll up your sleeves and put yourself at the top of your commitment list.
Marian Wright Edelman