Lanterns: A Memoir of Mentors

By Marian Wright Edelman

Book Overview

I am grateful beyond words for the example of the lanterns shared in this memoir whose lives I hope will illuminate my children's, your children's, and the paths of countless others coming behind.--Marian Wright Edelman, from the Preface

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.

She celebrates the lives of the great Black women of Bennettsville, South Carolina-Miz Tee, Miz Lucy, Miz Kate-who along with her parents formed a formidable and loving network of community support for the young Marian Wright as a Black girl growing up in the segregated South. We follow the author to Spelman College in the late 1950s, when the school was a hotbed of civil rights activism, and where, through excerpts from her honest and passionate college journal, we witness a national leader in the making and meet the people who inspired and empowered her, including Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, Howard Zinn, and Charles E. Merrill, Jr.

Lanterns takes us to Mississippi in the 1960s, where Edelman was the first and only Black woman lawyer. Her account of those years is a riveting first-hand addition to the literature of civil rights: "The only person I recognized in the menacing crowd as I walked towards the front courthouse steps was a] veteran New York Times reporter. He neither acknowledged me nor met my eyes. I knew then what it was like to be a poor Black person in Mississippi: alone." And we follow Edelman as she leads Bobby Kennedy on his fateful trip to see Mississippi poverty and hunger for himself, a powerful personal experience for the young RFK that helped awaken a nation's conscience to child hunger and poverty.

Lanterns is illustrated with thirty of the author's personal photographs and includes "A Parent's Pledge" and "Twenty-five More Lessons for Life," an inspiration to all of us-parents, grandparents, teachers, religious and civic leaders-to guide, protect, and love our children every day so that they will become, in Marian Wright Edelman's moving vision, the healing agents for national transformation.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807072141
• ISBN13: 9780807072141
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: Beacon Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.7" x 5.6"

Customer Reviews

Lessons Learned

Marian Wright Edelman, in pleasing prose, shares the experiences she had growing up surrounded by a community of mentors, both formal and informal. Edleman talks about the importance of parents, community elders as co-parents and mentors, and the powerful role teachers can play in the development of character. Her college years were greatly influenced by the civil rights leaders of the time, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Robert Kennedy among others. Edelman shares lessons learned from influential faculty and family friends and helps readers understand what it is like to be a part of something larger than themselves. This book, which focuses on the powerful influence that mentors can have on children and young adults, finishes with Edelman's "Parent's Pledge" and "Twenty-Five More Lessons for Life". She shares the wisdom gained from her parents and elders as well as her many years of experience working with children. Pearls such as "Always remember 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" and "Keep your word and your commitments" provide valuable advice for those seeking a strong moral center. This book is a recommended read for anyone interested in life lessons learned from a woman of faith whose experiences have been enriched by her interactions with the mentors in her life.

Enlightening!

For centuries sailors have relied on the constellations of heavenly lanterns to guide their way. In crisp, vivid prose, Marian Wright Edelman tells us about the heroes who provided beacons of hope and inspiration, helping her find her way through the many moral dillemas of life and stay on course.What is interesting is the sheer variety of backgrounds Dr. Edelman's heroes have. Nevertheless, they all share the author's passion for human rights and social justice. As a bonus, Dr. Edelman gives a brief history of the civil rights era, a nice complement to two other fine books on that fascinating topic, Taylor Branch's "Parting the Waters" and David Halberstam's "The Children." This book is much more a memoir. It is a call of action and an inspiration for all of us to act for the common good, to serve the community. It is up to the current generations to act as a positive role model for the next, much as Dr. Edelman's mentors did for her. Mentors, lanterns, are important at all times, during the economic boom of the late 1990s, when this book was written, as well as in the troubled initial years of the 21st century. There are already too many ships out there lacking a sailor to read the stars. And some ships don't even have a rudder.

Marian Wright Edelman's " Lanterns" Sheds Light

The unexpected return of her long lost college diary set Marian Wright Edelman on a quest to recall the mentors who helped her grow from a girl of the segregated south to the first Black woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar. If this book were to be viewed only as a further contribution to the history of the Civil Rights movement it would be a valued addition to a growing corpus. Offering an intimate glimpse of the young participants in that struggle for justice she further provides a poignant testament to the critically important role of the not so young who inspired it. Introducing both the celebrated and the obscure Edelman permits a rare insight into the formation of character and commitment. Long the best friend America's children have ever had, in this book, Edelman serves an older clintele who are likely to find in it a powerful pull to accompany the young on the journey to adulthood. In recalling childhood teachers as well as the dominant figures of the 1960s Edelman brings wisdom, insight and strong spirituality to a much needed reflection on intergenerational sharing.