Peter Edelman is a professor at Georgetown University Law Center. A top adviser to Senator Robert F. Kennedy from 1964 to 1968, he went on to fill various roles in President Bill Clinton’s administration, from which he famously resigned in protest after Clinton signed the 1996 welfare reform legislation. 

Edelman discussed the roadblocks to creating effective anti-poverty policies in the U.S., along with glimmers of hope for the future. This talk kicked off the "Great Society at Fifty" series with a packed house, setting the tone for the rest of the year's programming.