As we all look to a new year and pause to remember the highlights of the last one, the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) is reflecting on a major milestone: 2008 marked our 35th anniversary. In October, we celebrated with a special event at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C....

Parenting offers the most wonderful and daunting challenges in the world. Parents are their children's most important teachers and mentors, and they bear primary responsibility for nurturing their sons and daughters while keeping them safe. Yet parenting is one of the most undervalued and least prepared for roles in America....

As 2.1 billion Christians in our world prepare to celebrate the birth of the most famous poor baby in history, I hope they and all peoples will commit to helping all the poor babies in our rich nation and world find a place in our hearts and at our tables...

On the day he died, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called his mother to give her his next Sunday's sermon title: "Why America May Go to Hell." In his 1968 call for a Poor People's Campaign, he warned that "America is going to hell if we don't use her vast...

On October 4, 1957, history changed with the Soviet Union's successful launch of Sputnik I, the world's first man-made satellite. Americans were alarmed that we had been outpaced technologically and saw the Soviet feat as a threat to our national security. In order to catch up with the Russians, our...

In July 2008, Dr. Julius B. Richmond passed away at age 91 at his home outside Boston. Dr. Richmond served as U.S. Surgeon General under President Jimmy Carter. He was a pediatrician, professor of medicine, a child development specialist, and a co-creator and the first director of Head Start. He...

The past year has been a tumultuous and uncertain one for many Americans. Each day's headlines brought worrisome news: the collapse of Wall Street; massive home and job losses; and a spreading global economic crisis. We all felt enormous fear and insecurity for our family's and children's futures. Yet a...

At this transformative moment in American life with the election of Senator Barack Obama as our first African American and 44th President of the United States of America, we citizens must now roll up our sleeves and help translate this new presidency into a transformation of America's investment priorities and...

I am so proud of America! I am so proud of President-Elect Barack Obama who calls us to greatness and to rise to our best selves. And I am so proud of all the young people who joined with him in saying, "Yes we can."

The election of Barack Obama...

In September, with his selection as the new president and CEO of the NAACP, Ben Jealous became, at 35, the youngest president in the organization's history. He represents a new generation of Black leadership―one of many Black adults and youths who grew up benefitting from the increased access to education...

On the way to the voting booth on November 4, in addition to thinking about who should occupy the White House, we should also be concerned about who he will appoint to federal courts. The next President will likely name one to three Justices to the Supreme Court and hundreds...

Eternity means forever. Perhaps a mother who names her child Eternity hopes it will be a talisman to ward off the dangers that stalk poor and crime-ridden neighborhoods. Sadly, with the gun violence that is so pervasive in many of our communities, too many parents live with a paralyzing fear...

Vice-presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palin's announcement that her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant has sparked a new conversation about teenage pregnancy in America. This renewed focus on teen pregnancy is an opportunity for us all to commit to giving young people our support rather than stigmatizing and judging them. Bristol Palin's...

During nearly two years of presidential campaigning, the candidates have made claims and promises on how they would perform if they are elected to the White House. Some of the criteria we might use to judge a candidate's fitness and temperament for leadership are difficult to quantify. But one concrete...

A cartoon published in the early 1960s depicted a Black boy saying to a White boy: "I'll sell you my chance to be President of the United States for a nickel." The cartoon summed up how much most Black people felt the chances of a Black child growing up to...

This debate underscored the central question that each of us must ask ourselves before choosing our next president: Will our children and our children's children fare better than us?

Since 2001, we have spent hundreds of billions on two wars, and that doesn't even take into account anticipated further spending...

Every election year, politicians talk about getting tough on crime. One easy and politically popular strategy is to show voters you are tough on crime by spending billions of dollars sending people to prison. This requires more prisons to be built to keep the ever expanding incarcerated population behind bars...

People who don't vote don't count and are letting our children and our country down. As our nation's most historic election approaches, we must think of the youngest and most vulnerable among us and make sure we vote this November. An increasing number of children in our nation are denied...

Congress has a unique opportunity before it leaves Washington, D.C. at the end of September to help children in foster care by enacting important innovative legislation. The Fostering Connections to Success Act (H.R. 6307), already passed by the House, and its counterpart proposal under consideration in the Senate will help...

The rows of young people with "Kansas City CDF Freedom Schools" in black letters on their goldenrod T-shirts stood out among the 1,200 mostly college students shouting: "Rock the Freedom Schools, Rock the Freedom Schools." The Kansas City contingent was the largest at the Children's Defense Fund Freedom Schools^® Ella...