Page 1 of 2
Regular Session, 2011 ENROLLED
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 82
BY SENATOR JACKSON
A RESOLUTION
To recognize Wednesday, June 8, 2011, as Children's Defense Fund Day and to commend
the Children's Defense Fund.
WHEREAS, the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) is the foremost national proponent
of policies and programs that provide children with the resources they need to succeed; and
WHEREAS, the CDF champions policies that will lift children out of poverty,
protect them from abuse and neglect, and ensure their access to healthcare, quality education,
and a moral and spiritual foundation; and
WHEREAS, the CDF grew out of the Civil Rights Movement under the leadership
of Marian Wright Edelman; and
WHEREAS, the first black woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar, Mrs. Edelman
directed the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund office in Jackson, Mississippi,
worked with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as counsel for his Poor People's Campaign, and
dedicated her early career to defending the civil liberties of people struggling to overcome
poverty and discrimination; and
WHEREAS, in 1969, Mrs. Edelman began the Washington Research Project, a
public interest law firm that monitored federal programs for low-income families, and she
founded the CDF in 1973; and
WHEREAS, on October 6, 2008, friends of the CDF from across the country and
from all walks of life came together to celebrate the accomplishments and rededication of
efforts for America's children at CDF's Thirty-Fifth Anniversary Gala at the Kennedy Center
in Washington, D.C.; and
WHEREAS, the mission of the CDF's Leave No Child Behind program is to ensure
every child a healthy start, a head start, a fair start, a safe start, and a moral start in life and
successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities; and SR NO. 82 ENROLLED
Page 2 of 2
WHEREAS, the CDF provides a strong, effective, and independent voice for all the
children of America who cannot vote, lobby, or speak for themselves; and
WHEREAS, the CDF educates the nation about the needs of children and encourages
preventive investments before they get sick, drop out of school, get into trouble, or suffer
family breakdown; and
WHEREAS, the CDF pays particular attention to the needs of poor and minority
children and those with disabilities and advocates to dismantle the cradle to prison pipeline
across America to ensure that all children become successful and law-abiding; and
WHEREAS, it is appropriate to set aside a special day in recognition of the
outstanding work of the Children's Defense Fund.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
does hereby recognize Wednesday, June 8, 2011, as Children's Defense Fund Day in the
state of Louisiana and does hereby commend the Children's Defense Fund for its manifold
contributions to the state and to children and families for more than three decades.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
Louisiana and Washington, D.C., offices of the Children's Defense Fund.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE