JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A man known to many as a trailblazer and an outspoken community activist was laid to rest.
Family, friends and community leaders came together Saturday morning to pay their final respects to a civil rights leader in Jacksonville.
Ben Frazier died June 24 after a nine-month battle with cancer. His passing came one day after turning 73 years old.
“A trailblazer, a drum major of justice, a voice for the voiceless,” said Bishop Rudolph W. McKissick, Jr. That is how the pastor of The Bethel Church described Frazier.
Hundreds of people who knew the Jacksonville native filled into the church to celebrate his life and work.
Frazier’s childhood friends, Ed Dawkins and Joe Ross, who helped him establish the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville knew their friend had wisdom, courage and passion.
“Ben enlightened me to the fact that a small group of people, determined to stand up and speak out could make a difference,” Ross said.
“God gave him a melodious, resonating voice,” Dawkins said. “I said, ‘Ben, use your voice.’ He used his voice.”
Frazier was a civil rights advocate who established the Northside Coalition in 2016.
He also made history when he became the first African American to anchor a major news show in Jacksonville. That was back in 1979 on Channel 4.
Frazier won several journalism awards, including several Emmys, as well as awards for his work to fight for civil rights and racial equality.
Last year, Frazier went to Switzerland to speak to the United Nations Committee to Eliminate Racial Discrimination.
Frazier criticized Governor Ron DeSantis and Florida lawmakers for an anti-riot bill created following nationwide demonstrations after George Floyd’s death in 2020, stating that the new law restricted free speech.
Frazier was very active in the fight against the city’s effort to create redistricting maps in the city. A federal judge rejected the city’s plan and agreed with the Northside Coalition and other civil rights groups’ proposals.
Those in attendance for Frazier’s funeral, including Jacksonville mayor Donna Deegan, acknowledged Frazier was willing to get into “good trouble,” even if that meant getting arrested for what he believed in.
Frazier made national and international headlines a few different times within the last two years.
He was arrested during a Jacksonville city council meeting last December when he went beyond the allowed speaking time during the public comment portion of the meeting and refused to stop speaking.
In January 2022, Frazier was adamant about speaking with DeSantis at a news conference the governor was holding in Jacksonville. Frazier got into a heated exchange with some of the governor’s staffers and was arrested.
The trespassing charge he was hit with was dropped and his lawyer filed an intent to sue over that.
“Ben also knew the truth about love,” Deegan said during the service. “It is not some sanitized fairytale. It requires action. He moved with the freedom of a man who had taken a fierce, moral inventory, and honesty about himself that only those who have been to the lowest places find the courage to access. Ben had that courage, and he challenged us to find it.”
“Stubborn and hardheaded,” Ross jokingly said about Frazier. “But that is the determination part of it. He was not going to give up and not give in.”
“God granted him the serenity to accept things he cannot change,” Dawkins said. God gave him the courage to change the things he could.”
Frazier was known to be unapologetic, fearless and direct.
Those in the church’s sanctuary who paid tribute to Frazier said they will keep at least one promise.
“We will continue to do work and continue to get into good trouble,” Ross said.
“[Jacksonville] will not be the same without you, my brother,” Deegan said. “But until we meet again, and we will, we will continue doing the work.”
Frazier leaves behind a son, a daughter and four grandchildren.