Roxcy O’Neal Bolton: A lifelong Gables activist
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This year marks the 100th anniversary of her birth.
By Karelia Martinez Carbonell in collaboration with Bonnie Bolton
Hearsay has it that candidates for city office in Coral Gables coveted Roxcy Bolton’s endorsement and would make their way to her home, first on Alhambra Circle (dedicated as a Florida Heritage Site in 1999) and later, on Cadima Avenue, for the honor. Why that endorsement was sought after is the stuff of her legend.
Civic Leader and Pioneer
Roxcy was born on June 3, 1926, in Duck Hill, a small farming town in Mississippi. When she was 8, she decided on her career goal: to go to Congress. She accomplished that goal (though not as a representative) and more through her indomitable support of civil rights and feminist issues.
After high school in Duck Hill, Roxcy moved to Florida and worked for Southern Bell Telephone, where Ms. Dorothy Thomson (the future and only female mayor of Coral Gables) was her colleague. She became actively involved in community issues and Democratic Party organizations in the 1950s. She was profoundly affected by Eleanor Roosevelt’s address at the 1956 Democratic National Convention, which she attended as a delegate. Roxcy was also a delegate at the 1960 and 1964 national conventions.
In 1960, she married Navy commander David Bolton, who had been the chief war crimes prosecutor in the South Pacific after World War II. (He later became president of Men for the Equal Rights Amendment.) They lived for a time in Japan, where Roxcy joined the American Red Cross as a volunteer at the U.S. Naval Air Station in Atsugi. In 1964, they moved to Coral Gables, where they raised three children, David B., Bonnie D., and Buddy Bolton.
Throughout her life, Bolton was relentless as a civil rights leader and pioneer feminist. She was among the first Florida women to join the National Organization for Women after its founding in 1966, and served as national vice president after being elected to the board of directors in 1968. That same year she founded Florida’s NOW chapter and was the first president of the Miami-Dade chapter.
Bolton never wavered in her struggle for equal rights. She was the driving force behind the designation of August 26 as Women’s Equality Day. The 1972 proclamation by President Richard Nixon establishing the day was later presented to Bolton in recognition of her diligent efforts.
Among Her Many Accomplishments
Founded the nation’s first Rape Treatment Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami (named the Roxcy Bolton Rape Treatment Center in 1993).
Founded Women in Distress in 1972 (now operated by the Salvation Army).
Initiated the Rehabilitation Program for Young Prostitutes in Miami-Dade County.
Worked to prevent crimes against women by holding community meetings in her Coral Gables home in 1974 to organize the nation’s first neighborhood crime watch.
Led a famous sit-in at the University of Miami (in President Henry King Stanton’s office) to protest unequal treatment of female students and faculty.
Led the effort to create The Women’s Park in Miami-Dade County in 1992, as a tribute to past and present women leaders in South Florida (now home to the Roxcy O’Neal Bolton Women’s History Gallery).
Helped found the Dade Commission on the Status of Women
She actively campaigned (though unsuccessfully) for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, which would have been the 28th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Bolton convinced the U.S. Senator Birch Bayh (D-Ind) to hold hearings on the ERA before Congress in 1970. However, in 1979 Bolton successfully changed NOAA policy to have hurricanes named after men and women.
Her advocacy tackled equal pay, anti-rape laws, maternity leave, and pressured Miami department stores such as Burdines and Jordan Marsh to eliminate the men-only dining sections in their restaurants (she would say, “If men and women sleep together why can’t they eat together?”). She protested at the local Playboy Club, saying women shouldn’t have to wear cotton bunny tails on their rear ends, and is credited for opening the influential Tiger Bay political club to women.
Although she never ran for office herself, Bolton was committed to regularly attending and opining at City Commission meetings. Then Coral Gables Mayor Raúl Valdés-Fauli quipped, “A budget hearing without Roxcy Bolton is like a garden without flowers.” Her many years of pioneering for equal rights earned Bolton numerous awards, including her 1984 induction into the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame. She died at age 90 on May 17, 2017, in Coral Gables, the same year she received the Key to the City.
Karelia Martinez Carbonell is the president of the Historic Preservation Association of Coral Gables