Marian Wright Edelman: The Black Community Crusade for Children

As our country remembers the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., new research conducted for the Children’s Defense Fund has found the vast majority of America’s black community, seven in 10 adults, view these as “tough or very bad times” for black children and many see poor black youths falling further behind. When 40 percent of black children are born poor, 85 percent of black children cannot read or do math at grade level in fourth grade and later almost half drop out of school, and a black boy born in 2001 has a one in three chance of going to prison sometime in his lifetime, we know we are facing a crisis. So an intergenerational group of black leaders have just committed to a renewed movement to reweave the fabric of family and community for black children and to provide a stronger voice for children in their states and nationally. Read more...