TALLAHASSEE — The caravan took off at dawn, more than a dozen cars and trucks lumbering out of Jacksonville and onto Interstate-10, cutting west toward Tallahassee.
At the wheel of his black Toyota Camry was Ben Frazier, founder and president of the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville, a local group whose mission is to fight for civil rights.
The destination was the Florida Capitol, where the Republican-majority Legislature was starting a three-day special session to supposedly review redrawn congressional maps that Gov. Ron DeSantis wanted to help bolster GOP political power in the nation’s biggest battleground state. It was a foregone conclusion that lawmakers would OK the new maps, which would make it harder for North Florida voters to elect a Black member of Congress.
