THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT
Roxcy O’Neal Bolton
June 3, 1926 – May 17, 2017
“No matter what anyone tells you, one person can make a difference.”
Lifelong civil rights activist. NOW, national vice president, 1968. Founder and first president of Miami-Dade Chapter of NOW, 1968. Campaigned for the Equal Rights Amendment and convinced then U.S. Senator Birch Bayh (D-Ind.) to hold hearings on the ERA before Congress, 1970. Pressured the National Weather Service in the early ’70s to stop naming all hurricanes female names. Worked to establish Commissions on the Status of Women in state government and in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. Founded Women in Distress, a shelter for homeless women. Encouraged President Richard Nixon to issue a proclamation honoring Women’s Equality Day, 1972. Founded the nation’s first Rape Treatment Center in Miami in 1974 renamed the Roxcy Bolton Rape Treatment Center in 1993.
Photo 1. Roxcy Bolton at the Miami Rape Treatment Center (1974). Photo 2. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Paula Hawkins and Roxcy Bolton (1980’s).
More About Roxcy:
- Obituary, New York Times
- Roxcy Bolton led crusade for women’s rights in South Florida
- Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen honors Roxcy Bolton, The National Women’s History Project
- Essay on Roxcy Bolton, by Molly Turner (archive.org)
- Roxcy Bolton Receives Rotary Club Citizen of the Year
- Roxcy Bolton and the Naming of Hurricanes: We’re History (werehistory.org)
- State Library and Archives of Florida
- Roxcy Bolton Rape Treatment Center (RTC) website
- Wikipedia
- Cited in Barbara Love’s book, Feminists Who Changed America 1963-1975, pages 48, 49