Marian Wright Edelman Men Quotations

It is time for every one of us to roll up our sleeves and put ourselves at the top of our commitment list.

I need to work outside government, on my own,

There comes a time when you roll up your sleeves and put yourself at the top of your commitment list.

You just do it one step at a time.

You can achieve much in life if you don't mind doing the work and giving someone else the credit.

The core of the culture is racism and how black men are viewed. They've always been demonized and seen as threats in our culture. Another holdover from slavery. We've got to deal with that core root of racism and demonization of the upbringing of black men. Black women are not exempt by any means.

Black women rock the cradle, and whoever rocks the cradle rocks the future.

It's deeply rooted in the American psyche. Black men have always been viewed as the other, which leads to a different application of the laws. The current laws are an obscenity. More black men are locked up for using pot than white folk are for far more serious crimes.

There were these great women in Montgomery, [Rosa Louise] Parks was among them. Jo Ann Robinson [who organized the bus boycott] was among them. It's always these ordinary women and men of grace who have been waiting and seething and planning to change things that are unjust that bring movement.

We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.

We're spending, on average, three times more for prison than for public-school pupils. That's the dumbest investment policy. It doesn't make us safer.

We must always refill and ensure there is a critical mass of leaders and activists committed to nonviolence and racial and economic justice who will keep seeding and building transforming movements.

You're not obligated to win. You're obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every day.