Marjory Stoneman Douglas (1890 – 1998) American journalist, writer, feminist, and environmentalist. Even as a young woman Douglas was outspoken and politically conscious of many issues that included womens suffrage and civil rights. She was called upon to take a central role in the protection of the Everglades when she was 79 years old. For the remaining 29 years of her life she was a relentless reporter and fearless crusader for the natural preservation and restoration of the nature of South Florida. One of her earliest memories was her father reading to her The Song of Hiawatha, at which she burst into sobs upon hearing that the tree had to give its life in order to provide Hiawatha the wood for a canoe. She attended Wellesley College, graduating with a BA in English in 1912. She found particular gifts in a class on elocution, and joined the first suffrage club with six of her classmates. Douglas arrived in South Florida when fewer than 5,000 people were recorded on the census in Miami, the streets were made of white dust, and it was no more than a glorified railroad terminal. Her father, Frank Stoneman, was the first publisher of the paper that later became The Miami Herald. She joined the staff of the newspaper in 1915 reporting on society events, progressing to women in the US Naval Reserve, responsible urban planning, and the Miami population boom. She supported womens suffrage, civil rights, and better sanitation while opposing Prohibition and foreign trade tariffs. Using her influence at The Miami Herald, Douglas wrote columns about poverty: You can have the most beautiful city in the world as appearance goes, the streets may be clean and shining, the avenues broad and tree lined, the public buildings dignified, adequate and well kept ... but if you have a weak or inadequate health department, or a public opinion lax on the subject, all the splendors of your city will have not value. After quitting the newspaper in 1923, Douglas worked as a freelance writer of short stories, one-act plays and novels and eventually her most famous work, The Everglades: River of Grass published in 1947. Florida Governor Lawton Chiles explained her impact, saying, Marjory was the first voice to really wake a lot of us up to what we were doing to our quality of life. She was not just a pioneer of the environmental movement, she was a prophet, calling out to us to save the environment for our children and our grandchildren. Douglas lived until age 108, working until nearly the end of her life for Everglades restoration. Upon her death, an obituary in The Independent in London stated, In the history of the American environmental movement, there have been few more remarkable figures than Marjory Stoneman Douglas. wikipedia
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 14:00:01 +0000
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