They Cannot Fend for Themselves

The path that led Marian Wright Edelman to become one of Washington's most unusual lobbyists began on April 5, 1968, the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Then a civil rights lawyer practicing in Jackson, Miss., Edelman had sought out a group of black teenagers, hoping to dissuade them from violence. But when she tried to warn them that looting and rioting in the streets "may ruin your future," one boy angrily shot back, "Lady, why should I listen to you? Lady, I ain't got no future."

Haunted by the boy's hopelessness, Edelman resolved to dedicate herself to providing a better future for America's children. After nearly 20 years of work as a lobbyist, organizer and fund raiser, Edelman, 47, has emerged as a leading advocate for young people, the nation's poorest and most vulnerable group. As founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund, Edelman has ensured that even though the young cannot vote or make campaign contributions, they are not ignored in Washington. In her just published book, Families in Peril (Harvard University Press; $15.00), she contends, "As adults we are responsible for meeting the needs of children. It is our moral obligation. We brought about their births and their lives, and they cannot fend for themselves."

Edelman's effectiveness depends as much on her adroit use of statistics as on moral suasion. She never tires of pointing out that more than 12 million American youngsters -- 25% of the national total -- live below the federally defined poverty level. Or that while poverty has declined among other age groups, it has risen steadily among children. Or that the 10.8 infant deaths among every 1,000 live births in 1984 gave the U.S. one of the highest infant mortality rates among 20 leading industrialized nations. (And from 1983 to 1984, the C.D.F. reported last month, infant mortality rates increased in six of the country's largest cities, including Washington.) What these numbers indicate, she says, is "a national catastrophe in the making."

Edelman is particularly concerned about teenage pregnancy, which she sees as both a cause and a consequence of poverty. The C.D.F. reports that one in every five poor teenagers is a parent. Every year, almost half a million teenage girls give birth; about 50% receive no prenatal care in the first three months of pregnancy. Nearly one of every five babies born to adolescent mothers suffers from low birth weight. Amid growing concern about teen pregnancy, Edelman last week presided over the C.D.F.'s third annual Pregnancy Prevention Conference, which drew more than 2,000 religious leaders, social and health workers and community organizers to Washington.

The youngest daughter of a Baptist minister, Edelman inherited her sense of mission at an early age. "Helping other people, I did it as a kid like other kids go to the movies," she says. "It is what I was raised to be." When segregation laws prevented blacks in her hometown of Bennettsville, S.C., from entering public parks, her father opened a park behind his church. "That taught me, if you don't like the way the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it. You just do it, one step at a time."