In her lifetime, it went from a wilderness on the brink of irreparable development, to a National Park, a Wetland of International Significance, an International Biosphere Preserve, and a legislatively designated wilderness area (Breton, 1998, p. 243). And when we say that we do not mean electric lights and running hot and cold water, as you know. Douglas may have also been influenced somewhat by her father. Before she was famous, She joined the writing staff of the Miami Herald, first as a society reporter and then as an editorial columnist, using the latter to promote racial equality, womens suffrage, and environmentalism. According to Wilderness Connect, Frank Stoneman had already written newspaper pieces that criticized Florida Governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, who was an early proponent of simply draining the Everglades and taking the land that was left behind. She founded the group because she felt that her opinions on conservation, restoration and preservation would have more weight if they came from a group, rather than from her individual person. People have had a complicated relationship with Florida's subtropical wilderness for a long time. WebMarjory Stoneman Douglas (Marjory Stoneman) was born on 7 April, 1890 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, is an Actor. In 1920, Douglas came home to Miami and a new job as the assistant editor at the. ", The Untold Truth Of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, State Library and Archives of Florida/Wikimedia Commons. In 1928,Douglascame insecond placefortheprestigiousO. Henry Memorial Prize for short stories. WebRT @jilevin: "Corporate money in politics is what prevents us from doing something about gun violence" Shuttle Commander Senator Mark Kelly, husband of Rep. Gabbie Giffords, on the night of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas School shooting in Parkland, Florida February 14, 2018 . She moved to Florida when she was 25. As she said: "'Be a nuisance where it counts, but don't be a bore at any time.Do your part to inform and stimulate the public to join your action.Be depressed, discouraged, and disappointed at failure and the disheartening effects of ignorance, greed, corruption and bad politics-but never give up.'" Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. The next year she joined the American Red Cross in Europe in the midst of World War I. Douglas used the word "regionalism" long before that word and term were common to environmentalists, before even the term environmentalist was common. The expedition was meant to determine the feasibility of protecting the Everglades as a National Park. Even then, getting people to support the effort was difficult. The high school, She helped defeat proposals to build an airstrip in the middle of the Everglades, to further redirect the water that flowed through the grasslands, and helped work towards the restoration of the natural ecosystem. The story that Douglas told in "Plumes," was a fictional, dramatized version of the real murder of Guy Bradley in 1905. Marjory Stoneman Douglas (1890-1998) was an American journalist, writer, feminist, and environmentalist, known for her staunch defense of the Everglades against Her book, "The Everglades: River of Grass," attempted to place the history of the Everglades into one volume and brought widespread awareness of the area to the rest of the nation. Douglas, however, pushed back and began writing about women's suffrage, along with other social and environmental topics of the time. Her name was well-known first in Florida conservation circles and then nationally. She excelled academically at Wellesleyand was elected Class Orator upon her 1912graduation. Web211 likes, 5 comments - Safe Schools For Alex (@safeschoolsforalex) on Instagram: "In memory of Marjory Stoneman Douglas victims, Alex Schachter, Joaquin Oliver, and Luke Hoyer, th" Safe Schools For Alex on Instagram: "In memory of Marjory Stoneman Douglas victims, Alex Schachter, Joaquin Oliver, and Luke Hoyer, the Parkland However,Douglassoonleft her husband, as he was forging bank drafts in her name and drinking toexcess. Douglas'sefforts to preserve the Evergladesdid not go unrecognized. Though she's now best known for her nonfiction work like 1947's The Everglades: River of Grass, it's clear that the intellectually expansiveDouglas wasn't interested in limiting herself to just one genre or style of writing. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Douglas enlisted in the Naval Reserve, the first woman in Florida to do so. Born in Minnesota on April 7, 1890, Douglas grew up in Massachusetts and lived with her mother after her parents divorce. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida, was the scene of a mass shooting on Valentine's Day 2018 that killed 17 people. One of the hallmarks of her fiction writing had been her vivid descriptions of the natural world, and with the legislation to create the Everglades National Park, it seemed natural to have a book solely dedicated to the natural beauty and threats to the region. She took it upon herself through her column and other writings to introduce her readers to their new geography in everyway possible. She began touring the area, giving speeches and signing up new members. Marjory helped change public perceptions of the Everglades, showing that it was a diverse and beautiful ecosystem that should be protected. He teamed up with Douglas' father to create a committee to establish the park and Douglas eventually joined the committee. Marjory Douglas, ChampionOfEverglades, Dies at 108.The New York Times. Her tenure there was briefly interrupted when the United States entered World War I. "It was like speaking to blank walls," she recalled of the group's encounter with lawmakers, speaking in a 1983 interview via the Everglades Digital Library. According to the South Florida Sun Sentinel, these occupations included work in a department store. WebRT @jilevin: "Corporate money in politics is what prevents us from doing something about gun violence" Shuttle Commander Senator Mark Kelly, husband of Rep. Gabbie The publisher asked her to write about the Miami River, but she pointed out that wouldnt be a compelling read: Its only about an inch long, she said, according to her account in her autobiography. That same year, The Everglades National Park opened. Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Guardian of the 'Glades. Getty Images (1890-1998) Who Was Marjory Stoneman Douglas? Marjory Stoneman Douglas died in 1998 at the age of 108. When people aren't making jokes about "Florida man" the result of open public records, by the way, according to the Pensacola News Journal they're often reducing the state to picturesque beaches and, of course, Disney World. Along with her mother and maternal grandparents she had an aunt and uncle nearby. Do your part to inform and stimulate the public to join your action. Lillian suffered from sporadic mental illness and in 1896, left Frank and took Marjory to live with her own parents in Taunton, Massachusetts. Contact the Statewide Information Line: Bright as Marjory Stoneman Douglas' star seemed to shine in college, things started to go awry after graduation. Special Collections, University of Miami Libraries, Coral Gables, Florida. Yet, it would prove to be a fruitful move for Marjory's burgeoning writing career. She was working on a novel in 1941 when an editor approached her asking if she would be interested in writing a book on the Everglades. Jurors are now deliberating the fate of former Below are some of the details from Douglas remarkable life. While Marjory Stoneman Douglas clearly devoted a fair amount of her time to women's suffrage and, later, environmentalism, she was no slouch when it came to other social issues. It is still active today with a stated mission to preserve, protect, and restore the only Everglades in the world.. Its impact on the Everglades has been compared to that of Rachel Carson's book "Silent Spring" on pesticides. When an accused teenage gunman opened fire on his former classmates last week, hewore a maroon polo shirt emblazoned with the logo of the school from which he'd been expelled -- Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. It was a big room with men sitting around two walls of it with spittoons between every two or three. Still, it was clear to everyone that Florence needed help. Douglas later baldly admitted that her hiring there was "pure nepotism," but one can hardly blame her for taking advantage of the opportunity to finally become the writer she always wanted to be (via Orlando Sentinel). In awe of the beauty and wildlife of the nearby Everglades, Douglas was an early supporter of the initiative to designate the area as a national parkandserved on thepark's committee. And it was a hard-won fight, she wrote in her autobiography: There was no organized environmental movement until the late 1960s, and little understanding of what ecology is about. Douglas would later be elected the "Class Orator" and worked as an editor for school publications. Douglas continued to fight for the EvergladesafterRiver of Grass. Douglas founded Friends of the Everglades in 1969. She died at age 108 in 1998. Born in Minneapolis in 1890, Douglas attended Wellesley College, where she earned straight A's and was elected Class Orator, graduating in 1912. Sheleftthe Navythe following yearandjoined the American Red Cross, serving inEurope. Toshiko Akiyoshi changed the face of jazz music over her sixty-year career. Jurors get case against former Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School resource officer. The students at Douglas High may not know it, but in translating their anguish into activism, they are carrying on in the tradition of their school's namesake. Through all of her work, Douglas intensified regional, national, and international understanding of the singularity of the south Florida ecosystem. Early on, it was clear Marjory Stoneman Douglas was a voracious reader and a good writer. President Richard Nixon scrapped funding for the project due to the efforts of Douglas and her environmentalist colleagues. Already suffering from the failing vision that would soon leave her blind, she traveled across Florida speaking out against the jetport. Marjory Stoneman Douglas was a journalist and a pioneering environmentalist who helped defend the Florida Everglades. "We have all these natural beauties and resources," Douglas, Douglas in 1947 published her book, "The Everglades: River of Grass,". It was at Wellesley that she first got involved in the women's suffrage movement. As Douglas presented it, it was more than just the land that needed to be cared for and looked out for. All rights reserved. Because Douglas was an influential leader in Florida, several buildings are named for her. Marjory Stoneman Douglas Papers. The teacher had Douglas read it aloud in class as an example of what not to do but was likely a bit surprised to see that Douglas' work instead earned the acclaim of her classmates. Her father had founded a newspaper that was later bought and renamed the Miami Herald, where Marjorys first job was as society editor. Though Marjory Stoneman Douglas would eventually become best known for her advocacy on behalf of Florida's natural environment, she didn't seriously start getting into the cause of the Everglades until well after her move to Florida. This "grande dame of the Everglades," as Marjory Stoneman Douglas came to be known towards the end of her long life, was a consequential person indeed. Douglas herself was a complicated person whose legacy encompasses not only environmental advocacy, but a wide variety of other causes, fiction and nonfiction writing, journalism, traveling, and much more. 30.). In 1969, Biography reports, a proposed jetport was the inciting incident for a then 80-year-old Douglas to form Friends of the Everglades, which both defeated the jetport and finally made Douglas a well-known activist for her many speeches and vocal advocacy for the Florida wilderness. She later donated the medal to Wellesley College. As a young woman, she was a writer and editor at the Miami Herald, which her father helped to establish in 1910. Despite the literary promise that Marjory had shown both in high school and as a college student, upon graduating she worked in various department stores in St. Louis, Missouri and Newark, New Jersey. First, Marjory's parents split when she was six, according to the National Women's History Museum. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. She was among the original members of the college's Suffrage Club, a cause supported not only by Douglas and her classmates, but her grandmother and teachers. The headquarters of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in Tallahassee is called the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Building. Marjory Stoneman Douglas also had an extraordinarily long life, dying in 1998 at 108-years-old. This included the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950s, according to the National Park Service. While the group was staying aboard a houseboat in the Everglades, a man rowed up to say that, as soon as the committee left, all the egrets would be killed. After college and whilelivingin Newark,New Jersey,Douglas met newspapermanKenneth Douglas and the two married a few months later. Douglas herself lived in the neighborhood for over 70 years, from 1925 until 1998 (via Florida State Parks). While she was still young, her mother Florence had the first of numerous "mental breakdowns," as Marjory termed them in her memoir. In The Orchid Thief, writer Susan Orlean maintained that "the wild part of Florida is really wild" and always seems to exist right next to humanity's attempts to manage that unruly, uncomfortable wilderness. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. Douglas then returned to Miami, working again at theHerald, now as an assistant editor. "They didn't pay any attention to us at all [] I thought then that it was a backwards state and I still have some of that idea.". Mental illness was a recurring issue in Marjory Stoneman Douglas' immediate family. A masked man on horseback rode up in front of my father and said, this street is closed,' and my father said Get out of my way!' She worked a desk job for the Navy and in 1918 joined the Red Cross and went to Europe as a nurse with war relief efforts. By then, she was best known for her environmental advocacy, but her progressive legacy of work shows that she was the real activist deal. WebMarjory Stoneman Douglas was an American journalist, writer, feminist, and environmentalist known for her staunch defense of the Everglades against efforts to drain it and reclaim land for development. One of those people was Arno Cammerer, who would eventually become head of the National Park system. Douglas began working for theHeraldasasocietyreporterand editor. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. For a while, a nurse managed Florence's care, but then she was briefly institutionalized. How have Indigenous people exercised sovereignty and self-determination in the modern world? FSP.Feedback@FloridaDEP.gov, Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The national park was first authorized in 1934 but wasn't actually established until 1947 because of issues getting the land needed for the park, Britannica says. In the 1950s, Douglas railed against a major project of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a system of canals, levees, dams and pumping stations designed to protect marshland -- now used for agriculture and real estate -- from flooding. I believe that life should be lived so vividly and so intensely that thoughts of another life, or of a longer life, are not necessary., Dont think it is enough to attend meetings and sit there like a lump. Assignedthe Miami River,Douglasasked if she could write about the Evergladesinstead. She was not only an advocate for the environment but also for womens right to vote and for racial equality. WebThe miracle of the light pours over the green and brown expanse of saw grass and of water, shining and slow-moving below, the grass and water that is the meaning and the central fact of the Everglades of Florida. We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right,.css-47aoac{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#A00000;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-47aoac:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}contact us! Her second career as an activist, spokeswoman and grande dame of conservation spanned the next 51 years. Accessed March 22, 2021.https://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/03/magazine/the-lives-they-lived-marjory-stoneman-douglas-don-t-mess-with-her-wetlands.html, Harmond, Richard. Thank you! In Spring 2023, the National Women's History Museum partnered with a class at Miss Hall's School, an independent high school for girls in Massachusetts, to create a discussion guide for select sites featured in "We Who Believe in Freedom.". He was also an alcoholic and spent six months of their marriage in prison for various forging and theft crimes. Douglas was born in Minneapolis, The Everglades continue to face threats from land development,pollution, and climate change, but as Roderick J. Jude, a former head of the Sierra Clubs Florida chaptersaid, The Everglades wouldn't be there for us to try to continue to save if not for[Douglass]work.. Douglas used the word "regionalism" long before that word and term were common to environmentalists, before even the term environmentalist was common. Doherty, Kieran. (850) 245-2157, Or send an email to: The same year as the book was published, the Everglades were made a National Park. There's nothing on the Parkland, Florida, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School website about the woman whose name adorns the school, so its students may not realize that in rising from last weeks tragedy to speak truth to power, they are following in Douglass activist footsteps. One of its first campaigns was to protest the construction of a jetport in the Big Cypress portion of the Everglades. Learn to talk clearly and forcefully in public. Through her job, Douglas became the first Floridian woman to enlist in the Navy. Today there are two Florida public schools named after her - the high school in Parkland and an elementary school in Miami-Dade County. She enjoyed reading and school, and was influenced by the legion of well-educated women who taught her. She majored in English and contributed to and edited the college literary magazine. 2023 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. She wrote that, as a recent college graduate moving out after her mother's death, "I was glad to have escaped the house.". See if your friends have read any of Marjory Stoneman Douglas's books. When her mother finally died, Marjory was left to arrange the funeral herself. She turned to freelance writing to support herself,mainlyauthoring short stories. Their efforts were successful and the construction of the jet port never took place. She became known for work in nature conservancy after her 1947 book Everglades: River of Grass was published, but it was many years later, in 1969 at age 79, when she founded the Friends of the Everglades. Its too buggy, too wet, too generally inhospitable for camping or hiking or the other outdoors activities which naturalists in other places can routinely enjoy., To eager developers, the area can appear to be empty marshlands, thus prime territory for draining and building on. She eventually returned to Miami and her old job at the Herald in 1917, though she would no longer be content to write about the latest social goings-on thereafter. In 1993, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. "Those who crossed Douglas did so at their peril; former Assistant Secretary of the Interior Nathaniel Reed called her, 'that tiny, slim, perfectly dressed, utterly ferocious grande dame who can make a redneck shake in his boots.' Douglas was part of an early team surveying the area via houseboat when the group encountered egret poachers who openly admitted that they were going to hunt the birds for their plumage. Douglas began working as a reporter at theHerald; "a job she freely admits was given to her out of pure nepotism," (Peine, p. 18). RT @jilevin: "Corporate money in politics is what prevents us from doing something about gun violence" Shuttle Commander Senator Mark Kelly, husband of Rep. Gabbie Giffords, on the night of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas School shooting in Parkland, Florida February 14, 2018 It was around 1917 that Douglas took on a passionate role in advocating for the preservation of the Everglades. Instead, she proposed writing about the Everglades, the 1.5 million acres of wetlands that include the flow of freshwater from Lake Okeechobee to the Florida Bay and the Ten Thousand Islands. Floridas Department of Environmental Protection building is named in honor of Douglas, as are several schools and parks throughout the state. We want a place where the individual can be as free as possible, where the life of the community is rich and full and beautiful, where all the people, unhandicapped by misery, can go forward together to those ends which man dimly guessed for himself. Marjory Stoneman Douglas, the Guardian of the Glades, led the charge to protect the Evergladesandrevealtheir rich natural heritage to the rest of the world. Miami was a frontier town with 5,000 people, and Broward's plan to drain the Everglades for development and agriculture had attracted all manner of prospectors, like any other community with an undeveloped wilderness at its doorstep. Marjory grew up happily in Taunton. WebHer most famous work was The Everglades: River of Grass a book in which she notably redefined the Everglades as a river of treasure against the popularized conception of it She found inspiration in this setting, holding press conferences on the front lawn and working on the back patio. Even her critics admired her sharp intellect and tenacity. Here's how she framed that struggle in an interview with NPR back in 1981. Her ashes were scattered in the Everglades that she fought so hard to protect. At that time, Douglas entered the Naval Reserve for a year, which had her stationed in Miami. Marjory Stoneman Douglas was born on April 7, 1890 in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Florence Lillian Trefethen Stoneman, a concert violinist, and Frank Bryant Stoneman, a judge andnewspapereditor. She also set up a loan operation for the black residents of Coconut Grove to borrow money interest-free to pay for plumbing work. Her stories were predominantly about life in south Florida. This house is located in Coconut Grove, the oldest continuously occupied neighborhood in Miami. Date accessed. Why is Atlanta Pride in October when National Pride Month is in June? How can food be used as a form of cultural memory & resistance? WebMarjory Stoneman Douglas, who became known as "The Mother of the Everglades" was born and grew up far from the wilds of Florida. The first publisher of the Miami Herald, Stoneman hired his daughter as a society columnist. The name Stoneman Douglas has become synonymous with the tragedy that ended with 17 people dead and the accused killer, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, charged with murdering them. She wrote about the need for running water and sewage treatment in the burgeoning frontier city, for equal treatment and services in the African American sections of Miami, for infant and child nutrition, for city parks that preserved native plants as well as open space. Our collection contains 23 quotes who is written / told by Marjory. Byers, Stephen W. " THE LIVES THEY LIVED: Marjory Stoneman Douglas; Don't MessWithHer Wetlands.The New York Times. She graduated from high schoolin 1908 and went on to Wellesley College, where she studied English literature. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. The school was named after a woman who many people in the state consider a hero. Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who became known as "The Mother of the Everglades" was born and grew up far from the wilds of Florida. Douglas would certainly see a bit of herself in Emma Gonzalez, the poised and eloquent young woman whose speech electrified her classmates, teachers, parents, and the whole country at a Fort Lauderdale rally on Saturday, only days after a gunman entered her school and killed 17 people. Her efforts and those of her colleagues kept the Everglades National Park from being developed. It was during this time that Douglas obtained a divorce from her husband,though she continued to use thesurnameDouglas. WebPerhaps her most important award, came from President Bill Clinton in 1993, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for a lifetime of not just caring but actually working avidly and tirelessly for others and the environment. MCEVERS: Douglas published the book "The River Of Grass" in 1947. In addition to her environmental activism, Douglas continuedher work as a writer. According to a profile of Douglas on the National Park Service website: In the 1950s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rose to the top of her list of enemies. Douglas had been a reporter and editor for years when she was asked to write a book series on Americas rivers. (African version). Written in a style that skillfully blended science, local history, and evocativeimagery, the book quickly became a best-seller and transformed the publics perception of theEverglades. Education: Marjory Stoneman Douglas Net Worth: Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, built in 1990, became nationally known on Feb. 14, 2018, when a 19-year-old gunman Nicholas Cuz opened fire in the school, killing 17. Her mother, Florence, took Marjory to live with Florence's parents in Taunton, Massachusetts. WebThe Marjory Stoneman Douglas Papers (1890-1998) document the literary work and social activism of one of South Florida's most notable personalities. They were designed to protectnewly-developedland, butthey led to shrinkingthe water levelsthatdisrupted the natural cycles of precipitation and evaporationin the wetlands. After her marriage collapsed, Marjory moved to Miami to be with her father, Frank Bryant Stoneman, whom she hadn't seen since she was six. http://scholar.library.miami.edu/msdouglas/, Mariana Brandman, NWHM Predoctoral Fellow in Womens History | 2020-2022. Marjory spent five years researching the book, and it was published in 1947, just weeks before Everglades National Park officially opened. Miami was a frontier town with 5,000 people, and Broward's plan to drain the Everglades for development and agriculture had attracted all manner of prospectors, like any other community with an undeveloped wilderness at its doorstep.
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