Marjory Stoneman Douglas

“There was no organized environmental movement until the late 1960s, and little understanding of what ecology is about. Back in the 1920s, a few of us sensed that water was the key to the health of the Everglades, so perhaps we were untutored environmentalists even then.”

Marjory Stoneman Douglas

(April 7, 1890 to May 14, 1998)

Marjory Stoneman Douglas was a journalist and a pioneering environmentalist who helped defend the Florida Everglades. As a young woman, she was a writer and editor at the Miami Herald, which her father helped to establish in 1910. 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.” She was not only an advocate for the environment but also for women’s right to vote and for racial equality. She was a suffragist. And, it is remarkable how long a life she lived.

We believe the teens at “Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School” absorbed Marjory Stoneman Douglas’s spirit of activism because after the “Parkland School Shooting” some of the surviving students at MSDHS were, in their grief, motivated to organize and become gun violence prevention activists. Many, many of their dear friends were killed.

They started the movement called, “March for Our Lives.” Shown in this portrait alongside Ms. Stoneman Douglas are: David Hogg, Emma González, Jaclyn Corin, Cameron Kasky, and Alex Wind (although there are many more young activists who have been involved in this organization). They continue to influence local legislators and our federal leaders as well.

The short list:

• A journalist and early environmentalist.
• Wrote Everglades: River of Grass, to bring attention to conservancy of the Everglades.
• An advocate for women’s right to vote and racial equality.
• A suffragette