December 4th 2023
Marjory passed away May 14th 1998 at the age of 108.
Before her death, she was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor, by President Bill Clinton in 1993 at the age of 103. (2. pg43)
Her ashes were scattered over the 1.3 million acre Marjory Stoneman Douglas Wilderness Area in the Everglades National Park (3.)
Florida still prohibits the use of convict labor camps. However, inmates now provide labor to Florida’s Department of Transportation, Division of Forestry, and nonprofits rather than leased to private entities. (4.)
All of the money loaned out by the Coconut Grove Slum Clearance Committee was paid back in full by the by the members of the black community. (1. pg175) Shortly after the houses were plumed for water and sewage, the single family homes were torn down and rebuilt as large concrete public housing buildings. (5.)
The small private airport that was designated to be expanded into the large commercial jetport still sits in the middle of the Big Cyprus Reserve. The area surrounding it was never developed, leaving a quite private airport in the middle of the reserve.
The Friends of the Everglades continues to protect, preserve, and restore the Everglades though donations and volunteer work. The organization has continued to grow in the digital age and publishes multiple articles on conservation every month.
The Everglades National Park celebrated it's 75th Anniversary on December 6th 2022. Despite all the conservation efforts going into the area, the ecosystem continues to struggle. With it's original size reduced by half, and the redirection of water towards agriculture and public water supplies, the future is uncertain for America's largest wetlands.
1. Douglas, Marjory Stoneman, and John Rothchild. Marjory Stoneman Douglas: Voice of the River: An Autobiography. Pineapple Press, 1990.
2. Davis, Jack E. “Green Awakening: Social Activism and the Evolution of Marjory Stoneman Douglas’s Environmental Consciousness.” The Florida Historical Quarterly, vol. 80, no. 1, 2001, pp. 43–77. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30149433. Accessed 6 Nov. 2023.
3. “Marjory Stoneman Douglas - Division of Arts and Culture - Florida Department of State.” Dos.fl.gov, dos.fl.gov/cultural/programs/florida-artists-hall-of-fame/marjory-stoneman-douglas/.
4. Brown, Aubrey. “The Story of Convict Leasing in Florida.” Www.thejaxsonmag.com, 22 Mar. 2019, www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/the-story-of-convict-leasing-in-florida/.
5. Plasencia, Alex. TigerPrints a History of West Coconut Grove from 1925: Slum Clearance, Concrete Monsters, and the Dichotomy of East and West Coconut Grove. Clemson University, May 2011.
Photo: Marjory Stoneman Douglas Bio – Marjory Stoneman Douglas. msdelementary.net/index.php/marjory-stoneman-douglas-bio/. Accessed 5 Dec. 2023.
