JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Charles Scriven, the first Black officer in Jacksonville to advance to the level of chief, died on Christmas Day, his family said.
The Jacksonville Brotherhood of Police Officers shared its condolences on Tuesday.
“We are saddened to hear of the passing of retired Chief Charles Scriven. He made such a huge impact on the community as a whole as well as the members of our organization. Mr. Scriven left a legacy full of groundbreaking successes. We salute him for a life well lived and time well spent. He would often remind us that we should leave this world a better place than we found it. RIH Chief💙,” the organization wrote on Facebook.
“Blessed to have called Rev Charles my grandfather. He earned his wings on Christmas day. What an example of a life well lived. Comforted knowing he is in a brand new body, free of pain,” his grandson Mark Scriven wrote.
Scriven spoke to News4JAX in 2019 when he was 86 years old and said some of his most memorable moments were with the Jacksonville Police Department, which is what it was called when he was hired in 1955, a decade before consolidation.
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“We had what we called a Negro precinct. We only worked in then the Negro community. We had all kinds of limitations,” said Scriven.
In the 1950s Jacksonville and almost everywhere else in America was segregated. Scriven was a cop, but he could not arrest white people. They had to call a white supervisor to handle it if they thought a white person had broken the law.
In 1973, he was appointed as the first Black Jacksonville Police Chief. Later, he was appointed by Governor Reuben Askew to the Parole and Probation Commission in 1975, the first time Florida had a Black parole commissioner.
But back in 1957, Scriven applied to join the Fraternal Order of Police, but he was denied because he was Black.
Scriven, who was born in 1932, didn’t give up. His faith in getting the respect and membership that he deserved came from determination rooted in humble beginnings in the tight-knit community of Durkeeville.
Records show Scriven was accepted to the FOP in 1996 but no one told him, so in 2018, he requested membership again. That’s when then FOP President Steve Zona found out about the battle for membership Scriven had been fighting for decades. Zona drove to Tallahassee to meet Scriven and apologized on behalf of the FOP.
Scriven, in his tradition of doing what’s right, also wanted a public apology in front of his wife of 65 years and family. That came in 2019 in a room packed with former police chiefs, mayors and officers.
“People need to know the truth and move from where they are. I sought to do that and I did not hesitate to do what I thought was right in this sight of God and the service of this community,” said Scriven. “For some 40 years I was denied membership and all I wanted was to have a chance to be a part of an organization that played a major role in my livelihood.”
Scriven said that he simply wanted to have the same rights as any other police officers who put their lives on the line every day.