In 1926 Mrs. Harry Hoyt gathered a group of women in her home in Riverside to form the Jacksonville Branch of AAUW by accepting its by-laws and goals. They then invited other women to join them at an at-large meeting in the fall at the YWCA. They met on Friday afternoons at 3:30 for tea with the program and business meeting following at 4:00. Nina Cummer was a charter member and between 1927 and 1940 she held an annual tea for members in her garden. Since then the Branch meetings have followed a variety of formats but have always focused on empowering women and girls.
By 1930 the Branch had 66 members and 16 associates. Projects during the Depression years included working with managers at Cohen’s Department store to decorate windows with toys that most people could afford and that did not suggest war and raising funds for a part-time teacher at Hope Haven’s Children’s Hospital, and scholarships.
On March 23, 1936, under the auspices of the Branch, Eleanor Roosevelt spoke to an audience of over 1500 people at the Armory. According to the T-U articles it was a big event in Jacksonville with Mayor Alsop and many local dignitaries joining AAUW members in welcoming her to Jacksonville. With the theme of her talk as Peace, she decried the suspicion with which nations viewed one another with no common ground for understanding. She noted that “it may be that women will have to lead the movement” to create a strong public sentiment against war. Mrs. Roosevelt had traveled by train to Winter Park with FDR who was given an honorary degree by Rollins College. He left for a fishing trip on his new yacht and Eleanor’s brother drove her to Jacksonville. She returned to Washington by plane at 1 1 pm noting later that she was the only woman on the plane — probably because women did not like arriving at 5 am. Her speech was a fundraiser for two scholarship funds for women — one for a National fund and one to send a young woman from Jacksonville to college.
By 1955 it was obvious that the Carnegie Library, built in 1904, was not only too small but was severely underfunded by the city. So Eugenie Suter, the incoming president asked Elinor Brink, Minnie Schreiber, Dorothy Christian and Sue Begeley (Palmer) to study ways to improve the situation. At the fall meeting that year the committee recommended that a Friends of the Library group be formed that would rally the city to support a bond issue to fund a new, larger library. About 300 citizens came out to a meeting on June 14, 1956 to found the Friends. AAUW members continued to work actively to support the Friends and to push for the new library. A decade later the Hayden Burns Library was dedicated. We were pleased to help the Friends celebrate their 60th anniversary this fall, and to recognize their many contributions to the library system over the years.
In 1966 and 1967 the Branch joined with the League of Women Voters to provide volunteers in the campaign of the Citizens for Better Government for the consolidation of the city and county.
In the 1970s the Branch continued to support the Friends, as well as the Equal Rights Amendment and the Title IX Amendment to the Education Act.
From 2002 through 2004 the Branch sponsored the JAX READS program — an effort to encourage the whole city to read the same book and then discuss it with others. Book discussions were held not only in branch libraries but in schools, churches, restaurants, senior centers and newly formed neighborhood book clubs. To Kill a Mockingbird, Fahrenheit 451 and The House on Mango Street were the selected titles.
