JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Community leaders and Jacksonville residents are remebering the life and legacy of Jacksonville community activist and Northside Coalition leader Benjamin Frazier, who died following a nine-month battle with cancer just one day after his birthday 73rd birthday.
“Ben had a big voice, big voice not just as a journalist but after television a big voice in the community as a representative, a spokesperson for the voiceless," said Ken Amaro, Jacksonville City Council representative for District 1.
Frazier broke into the broadcast world in 1971, lending his voice to a radio station in Jacksonville. From there, Frazier continued moving up through the broadcast world working in many cities including Atlanta and Washington, D.C.
In 1979, Frazier made history when he came back to Jacksonville and became the first African American to anchor a major news show at WJXT.
He then moved to Detroit, continuing his anchor career, before coming back to Jacksonville in 1985 to co-anchor the 11 o’clock news on First Coast News Channel 12. He resigned a few months later and enrolled in a drug treatment program, according to a report on his life by the Florida Times Union.
He founded the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville in 2015, an organization aimed at addressing social, racial and economic injustice.
Through the coalition, Fraizer remained active in Jacksonville, and could be seen rallying in front of city hall for voter protections, or speaking out at city council meetings.
Amaro worked with Frazier at First Coast News and believes his legacy will live on through those he inspired.
“In the process of building the Northside Coalition, he pulled a lot of people along with him, who shared the same feelings, shared the same voice of advocacy. I would believe that those individuals, even though Ben may be gone, they will want to continue in that vain," Amaro said.
