Let Florida Be Green: Women, Activism, and the Environmental Century, 1900-2000
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LET FLORIDA BE GREEN: WOMEN, ACTIVISM, AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL CENTURY, 1900-2000 By LESLIE KEMP POOLE A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2012 1 © 2012 Leslie Kemp Poole 2 To my husband, Michael, and sons, Blake and Preston, who joined me on this long journey and kept me on the path; and to Clara Dommerich, Lucy Worthington Blackman, Katherine Bell Tippetts, and the other “forgotten” Florida women who deserve the thanks of every Floridian for their passion and dedication. 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the guidance of Dr. Jack E. Davis. His insight and enthusiasm for revealing the agency of women in Florida’s environmental movement has been priceless and his close, challenging scrutiny of my work has vastly improved it. Dr. Vassiliki “Betty” Smocovitis opened my eyes to the wonders of women and science and patiently guided me through important dissertation topics, and Dr. Paul Ortiz welcomed my recorded interviews into the University of Florida’s Samuel Proctor Oral History Program, where they will be available for future researchers. Many thanks to my committee members, Dr. Louise Newman and Prof. Alyson Flournoy, for their valuable insights about women’s strategies and tactics. Also at UF, Dr. Steven Noll has encouraged me and shared his keen understanding of Florida environmental history, particularly of the Cross-Florida Barge Canal; Florence Turcotte offered wonderful direction at the UF archives; and Dr. Margaret “Peggy” MacDonald willingly shared her research about Marjorie Harris Carr that is incorporated into this document. My work at the University of Florida was rewarded with the 2007 Jack and Celia Proctor Prize for research in Florida/Southern history, a great boost to my studies. Also many thanks to the Tampa Bay History Center for its 2007 Leland Hawes Prize, which helped buy a new, greatly needed computer, and to the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Society for its inaugural 2011 Edna Saffy Graduate Award. I also thank Florida Historical Quarterly and Tampa Bay History for publishing some of my early research. My colleagues at Rollins College, in Winter Park, Florida, where I work as an adjunct professor, were the first to push me toward a doctorate degree. Now that I have survived it, I thank Dr. Bruce Stephenson, Dr. Patricia Lancaster, and Dr. Joseph Siry for the initial momentum and continual encouragement. Also supporting me at Rollins College are Dr. Julian Chambliss, Dr. Robert Smither, Dr. Sharon Carrier, Dr. Barry Levis, and Joanne Hanley. Dr. Jim 4 Clark, of the University of Central Florida and a former associate from newspaper days, offered sage advice, humor, and encouragement that kept me focused. James Murphy shared his unpublished biography of Doris Leeper, helping to paint a stronger portrait of her accomplishments, and Clay Henderson offered his recollections of “Doc” and shared his many contacts with the state’s environmental movers and shakers. Kay Davidson-Bond has been a patient, careful reader and fine friend throughout this process. Gerry Wolfson-Grande has been an invaluable and good-natured wordsmith. I could not have completed my research without the help of personnel and archivists at the University of West Florida, University of Miami, Miami History Center, Maitland Historical Society, Florida Audubon Society, Orange County Regional History Center, University of Central Florida, Florida Historical Society, Rollins College, and the Stranahan House and Museum. Special thanks to the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs and the Florida Federation of Women’s Clubs which repeatedly opened their doors, files, and email to help quench my academic thirst. Finally, I thank the nineteen women and three men who participated in my oral interviews, opening their homes, minds, and hearts to discuss their important activism on behalf of Florida’s environment. Their love of Florida and optimism about its future are inspiring; they are models for us all, carrying on the tradition started more than a century ago in Clara Dommerich’s living room. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 ABSTRACT .....................................................................................................................................7 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................9 2 FOR THE BIRDS ...................................................................................................................23 3 CONSERVATION, FORESTS, AND PARKS ......................................................................60 4 THE CITY AND STATE BEAUTIFUL ..............................................................................114 5 A RISING ECOLOGICAL CONSCIOUSNESS .................................................................170 6 POLLUTION ........................................................................................................................219 7 ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ...........................................................................................275 8 WOMEN LEADERS ............................................................................................................322 LIST OF REFERENCES .............................................................................................................375 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................................414 6 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy LET FLORIDA BE GREEN: WOMEN, ACTIVISM, AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL CENTURY, 1900-2000 By Leslie Kemp Poole August 2012 Chair: Jack E. Davis Major: History Florida women were central agents in the rise of environmentalism in the state during the twentieth century, using their talents, energy, and organizing skills to respond to rising crises in the natural world. From protecting birds to creating the first state park to opposing water and air pollution, women helped set the environmental agenda in Florida, often a reaction to problems created by male-dominated industry, development, and government. This narrative focuses on the public and personal strategies women employed to create civic awareness, political action, and fundamental change in how Floridians viewed their relationship to the landscape as it underwent massive growth and changes. Their work corresponded with the rising national environmental movement, and, importantly, with dramatic changes in women’s roles and rights during the same era. Women used a variety of tactics to operate within the strictures of different decades, expanding their roles and power from grassroots workers operating largely within same-sex clubs and organizations to leading bi-gender campaigns for environmental reform to running governmental bureaucracies. At the beginning of the century, women had no vote—by the end of it they advised presidents and set national policy. 7 Although they took cues from environmental efforts across the country, Florida’s unique biota and natural systems and the unbridled post-World War II development forced the state’s women to fashion creative solutions to stop environmental ills and deal with male- and development-dominated political bodies. Citing numerous archival sources and new interviews with activists, this study shows how the interplay of increasing ecological understanding and environmental activism informed and propelled women’s agendas to the forefront of public sentiment. In doing so, this dissertation demonstrates many dynamics at work in environmentalism, painting historical developments in a fresh light that contributes to a broader understanding of the history of women, Florida, and the environment. 8 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Near the end of her life, Everglades activist and author Marjory Stoneman Douglas took the occasion of yet another public honor to reflect upon Florida’s changing environmental ethic. A state that once promoted draining its vast wetlands now was honoring Douglas, 91, for her feisty, tenacious campaign to save and restore the south Florida system, signifying a vast shift in attitudes during the twentieth century. By 1981, Douglas was the icon of Florida environmentalism and now her name would grace the building that housed the Florida Department of Natural Resources, a bureaucratic agency that arose in 1969 to address the state’s ecological ills.1 “Actually the whole environmental movement is a thing that is completely new,” she said, adding that environmental protections that once left many people skeptical now won widespread support. She urged her audience of three hundred, which included the governor and cabinet, news media, and employees of different state agencies, to continue protecting the natural world and closed her remarks using a line often penned by one of her regular correspondents: “Yours always for our beautiful and beloved Florida.”2 Those sentiments might have come from a host of Florida women whose talents, energy, and organizing skills were vital to the rise of environmentalism in the state in the twentieth century. Their work led to greater public awareness, political action, and fundamental