director who won an Academy Award for his documentary O.J.: Made in America. Honors and awards 1982: Candace Award, National Coalition of 100 Black Women 1985: MacArthur Fellowship 1985: Barnard Medal of Distinction 1986: Doctor of Laws, honoris causa Bates College 1988: Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism 1991: Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards. 1991: member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1992: Boy Scouts of America, Silver Buffalo Award 1993: National Women's Hall of Fame 1993: Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement 1994: member of the American Philosophical Society 1995: Community of Christ International Peace Award 1996: Heinz Award in the Human Condition 2000: Presidential Medal of Freedom 2004: The National Women's History Project named her one of their Women's History Honorees, "2004: Women Inspiring Hope and Possibility" 2009: Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D.) from Whittier College 2010: A Marlboro County library named in her honor in her hometown of Bennettsville, South Carolina. 2011: Rathbun Visiting Fellow at Stanford University 2016: Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Citizen Leadership 2017: Received Doctor of Humane Letters as an honorary degree from Ohio State University Selected works See also List of first women lawyers and judges in Mississippi References Further reading Thomas, R. R.; Ashton, S., eds (2014). The South Carolina Roots of African American Thought. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press. pp. 257–260. External links Biography page at CDF Children's Defense Fund Edelman identifies "weasels" in American democracy February 22, 2006, ·minnesota public radio "TEDWomen 2018: Reflections from a Lifetime Fighting to End Child Poverty". Ted Talk, Marian Wright Edelman in conversation with Pat Mitchell. Interview with Marian Wright Edelman, All About Kids! TV Series (1999) 1939 births Living people Activists for African-American civil rights African-American lawyers African-American women lawyers American humanitarians American women lawyers American lawyers Children's rights activists MacArthur Fellows Members of the American Philosophical Society People from Bennettsville, South Carolina Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Spelman College alumni Women humanitarians Women nonprofit executives Writers from South Carolina Yale Law School alumni Members of the National Academy of Medicine