Lanterns : a memoir of mentors / Marian Wright Edelman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Edelman, Marian Wright.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Edelman, Marian Wright.

Mentoring--United States.

Mentoring.

Edelman, Marian Wright--Friends and associates.

African American women social reformers--Biography.

African American women social reformers.

Edelman, Marian Wright--Philosophy.

Conduct of life.

Children--United States--Conduct of life.

Children.

Philosophy.

Friends and associates.

United States.

Genre:

Biographies.

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

xxi, 180 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Boston : Beacon Press, [1999]

Summary:

Marian Wright Edelman, "the most influential children's advocate in the country" (The Washington Post), shares stories from her life at the center of this century's most dramatic civil rights struggles. She pays tribute to the extraordinary personal mentors who helped light her way: Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, Fannie Lou Hamer, William Sloane Coffin, Ella Baker, Mae Bertha Carter, and many others.

Contents:

1. Parents as Mentors / Arthur Jerome, Maggie Leola Bowen Wright 1

2. Community Elders as Co-Parents and Mentors / Miz Tee, Miz Lucy, Miz Kate, Miz Amie 10

3. Teachers and Their Messages 20

4. Spelman College

A Safe Haven / Benjamin Elijah Mays, Howard Zinn, Charles E. Merrill Jr. 24

5. Europe 37

6. Martin Luther King, Jr., and a Spring of Change 44

7. The Yale Years / William Sloane Coffin Jr., Malcolm X, Getting Ready for Mississippi 66

8. The Mississippi Years 76

9. Mississippi Mentors / Bob Moses, Fannie Lou Hamer, Mae Bertha Carter, Unita Blackwell 83

10. Martin Luther King, Jr., and R.F.K.: A Season of Hope for the Hungry 101

11. Movement Time 116

12. Great Black Women Mentors and Movement Builders / Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Mary McLeod Bethune, Septima Clark, Ella Baker 121

13. Our Children as Mentors 133

14. America as Mentor for its Children and the World 141

Afterword: A Parent's Pledge and Twenty-Five More Lessons for Life 153

Lesson 1 Always remember that you are God's child. No man or woman can look down on you and you cannot look down on any man or woman or child

Lesson 2 Don't wait for, expect, or rely on favors. Count on earning them by hard work and perseverance

Lesson 3 Call things by their right names

Lesson 4 Don't listen to naysayers offering no solutions or take no or but for an answer

Lesson 5 Don't be afraid to stick your neck out, to make mistakes, or to speak up

Lesson 6 Keep your word and your commitments

Lesson 7 Be strategic, focus, and don't scatter your energies on many things that don't add up to a better whole

Lesson 8 Watch out for success. It can be more dangerous than failure

Lesson 9 You can't do everything by yourself but you can do a lot

Lesson 10 Asking the right questions and measuring the right things may be more important than finding the right answers

Lesson 11 Travel lightly through life and resist the tyranny of burdensome or unneeded things

Lesson 12 Be a pilgrim and not a tourist in life and don't confuse heroism with fame or celebrity

Lesson 13 God has a job for all of us to do. Open up the envelope of your soul and try to discern the Creator's orders inside

Lesson 14 Follow the Golden Rule rather than the world's silver, iron, bronze, and copper rules

Lesson 15 Bear all or most of the criticism and share all of the credit

Lesson 16 Be real. Try to do what you say, say what you mean, and be what you seem

Lesson 17 Avoid high-maintenance, low-impact people. and life in the fast lane

Lesson 18 God did not create two classes of children or human beings

only one

Lesson 19 Don't ever give up on life. It is God's gift. When trouble comes, hang in

Lesson 20 Strive hard to be a good parent

Lesson 21 Be a good ancestor. Stand for something bigger than yourself. Add value to the Earth during your sojourn

Lesson 22 Don't let anything or anybody get between you and your education

Lesson 23 Never judge the contents of a box by its wrappings

Lesson 24 Take responsibility for your behavior. Don't make excuses, blame, or point fingers at others or hide behind "everybody's doing it."

Lesson 25 Possessions and power don't make the man or woman: principles, character, and love do.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 177-180).

ISBN:

0807072141

OCLC:

42291248