FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF THE NORTHSIDE COALITION OF JACKSONVILLE
Program Success 22 Black History 2023
Ben Frazier
FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF THE NORTHSIDE COALITION OF JACKSONVILLE
Ben Frazier is a well-known community organizer and human rights activist . He is well known for his charismatic personality and his booming baritone voice ! He is seen regularly on local television news and often as a guest on programs like the Roland Martin Unfiltered and Reid Out hosted by Joy Reid on MSNBC .
Like his hero Dr . Martin Luther King Jr , Frazier has often used his voice to speak truth to power ! And like Dr . King , Frazier has been arrested for speaking out against racism and social injustice . Even so , the arrests have not stopped him from utilizing direct action , and nonviolent , civil disobedience tactics in his war against social injustice !
When he spoke out against the systemic racism faced by three million Black Floridians , the officer of Governor Ron DeSantis had Frazier arrested . When he demanded that Confederate monuments be removed from public property city officials in Jacksonville had Frazier arrested at a public meeting !
Two years ago Governor DeSantis enacted a state law called HB-1 . That law chilled the protests and constitutional rights of demonstrators . ( HB- 1 targeted Black organizers and Black-led organizations ( like the very progressive and vocal Northside Coalition of Jacksonville Inc . which Frazier founded .) Frazier and other civil rights groups filed a federal lawsuit and they are now suing the Governor . That action is now being litigated in the U . S . District court .
In the past year , Frazier made his way to the world stage ! He achieved international prominence when he was invited to Geneva , Switzerland to address the United Nations about the status of human rights in Florida . Frazier addressed the Committee to Eliminate Racial Discrimination . Mr . Frazier spoke on the social injustice of HB-1 and it violates the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights .