Roxcy Bolton

Permanent Link:: http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI17122124/00001

Material Information

Subjects / Keywords:: Coral Gables (Fla.)--History--Pictorial works
National Organization for Women. Florida Chapter ( lcnaf )
Women's rights--United States--History ( lcsh )

Abstract:: Roxcy Bolton was born in Mississippi on June 3rd, 1926 and became one of Florida's most prominent feminists. She fought for the Equal Rights Amendment, persuading Senator Birch Bayh to hold the first hearings on the proposed amendment in 1970. Mrs. Bolton pushed department store "businessmen's grilles" to serve women and fought for better childcare and the right for mothers in Miami to nurse their babies in public. She was the first Floridian to sign up for the National Organization for Women and founded Miami's chapter of NOW, later even becoming national Vice President of the organization in the early 1970s. Mrs. Bolton helped establish Miami-Dade's Commission on the Status of Women, Crime Watch, and Women in Distress in Miami, one of the first shelters of its kind in Florida. When incidents of rape increased drastically in Miami during the early 1970s, Mrs. Bolton marched down Flagler St. in protest and later founded the Jackson Memorial Hospital's Rape Treatment Center. In 1984, she was inducted into the Florida Women's Hall of Fame. Roxcy Bolton died May 17th, 2017 in Coral Gables. ( en )