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‘He would say great job Jacksonville’: Daughter of late civil rights activist remembers father as statue comes down

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As cranes lifted the Confederate monument out of Springfield Park on Wednesday morning, one name was called out by a crowd that had gathered to watch.

“Ben Frazier! Ben Frazier! Ben Frazier!”

Ben Frazier, who died in June at the age of 73 following a battle with cancer, spent years fighting for the historic moment that happened Wednesday.

He wasn’t there to watch it happen, but his daughter Kelly Frazier told News4JAX he was there in spirit.

“He would say great job Jacksonville, you got it right,” she said.

Ben Frazier was involved in dozens of protests over the years as part of the Northside Coalition.

In June 2020, former Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry ordered that the Confederate statue in what was then known as Hemming Park, now James Weldon Johnson Park, be removed. At that time, Curry also announced that all Confederate monuments in the city would be removed. The Northside Coalition demanded that Curry follow through with that promise, but it didn’t happen during his administration.

MORE | ‘Donna Deegan is our Mayor, not our Monarch’: Councilman criticizes removal of Confederate monument in Springfield | Surprise removal of Confederate monument garners strong, mixed reactions from Jacksonville residents

“It might not happen when you want it to, but stay the course. And it’s still happening. Even though, like I said, he’s not here with us, he is spiritually here with us watching down smiling, I’m certain of it,” Kelly Frazier said.

Frazier said she imagines her father would be grateful to Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan for sticking to her word and for the members of Take Em Down Jax who stuck with the fight.

She said the history of the monument will never change.

“It’s not something that should be on public ground, something that isn’t a park area where we would come all the time and be reminded of what exactly it stands for, which is racism. It was a statute, celebrating the Confederacy. It was a statute for the women of the South, who stayed behind when the men of the South went to fight in the war for racism,” Kelly Frazier said.

RELATED | Historian: Springfield Park Confederate monument was put up to intimidate Black residents during Jim Crow era

Now, the Northside Coalition wants to rename Springfield Park to Ben Frazier Park.

“Ben Frazier stood for unity. Ben Frazier stood for what was right. Anybody that wanted this statute to stay was not standing for unity. It was not a togetherness situation. This was hate. We saw it as hate. Some people saw it as something else, but it was not good,” she said.

Frazier said the fight doesn’t end here.

She said there are Confederate street names, bridges and other markers they want to see gone.

She encourages people to speak up for the greater good of Jacksonville.


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