C. Gerald Fraser

Charles Gerald Fraser (July 30, 1925 – December 9, 2015) was an American journalist, best known for his long service (1967–1991) at The New York Times, having begun his journalistic career at the New York Amsterdam News in 1952. He was described by journalist and sociologist Thom Blair as "a citizen journalist inside the mainstream press".^[1]

He was born as Charles Gerald Fraser Jr. in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 30, 1925, to parents who had migrated to the United States from the Caribbean. His father, who was a cook, came from Guyana, and his mother, a seamstress, from Jamaica.^[2]

Fraser earned a bachelor's degree in economics in 1949 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he worked on the student newspaper.^[2] He went on to obtain a master's degree at the New School for Social Research, in New York.

From 1952 to 1956, Fraser worked as a reporter with the New York Amsterdam News. There, as Herb Boyd notes, "he covered everything from crime, housing integration, social affairs, economic issues, civil rights, education and labor. When there was a paucity of African-American teachers in the New York school system, Fraser’s front page story in 1955 illuminated their plight. The Teachers Union, Fraser wrote, claimed 'that less than 4 percent of the teachers in New York schools are Negroes.'"^[3] Fraser subsequently worked at the United Nations for several West Indian publications, prior to being hired by the New York Daily News.^[3]

In 1967, Fraser was employed by The New York Times, becoming the paper's second Black reporter.^[3] Later colleague Pranay Gupte, commenting in the Huffington Post on those "tough years in the journalism of an era where blacks weren't necessarily welcomed and their acuity questioned", recalled: "Gerry Fraser overcame by the sheer sturdiness of character. He would come up with his own assignments – not only about the burgeoning black communities in New York state, but also about a wide range of issues, including electoral politics. He would always say that a black reporter could and should cover issues beyond blackness."^[4]

Leaving The New York Times in 1991, Fraser joined Earth Times, a monthly publication campaigning on environmental affairs, where he became a senior editor.^[1][2]

A mentor for younger reporters, Fraser also taught at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and at John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York.^[2]

Fraser died at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx on December 9, 2015, having been suffering from cancer.^[2][3]

At the time of his death, he was due to be honored in the 2016 Hall of Fame of the National Association of Black Journalists as a pioneer and "inspirational mentor for generations of reporters".^[5][6]

• "SNCC Has Lost Much of Its Power to Black Panthers", Eugene Register-Guard, October 9, 1968^[7]

• "Amilcar Cabral Death for A Symbol Of Hope", The New York Times, January 26, 1973.^[8]
• "Defiant Judge Again Backs Right to Abortion Privacy", The New York Times, June 21, 1973^[9]
• "Art Farmer Finds jazz In Europe Challenging", The New York Times, August 26, 1976^[10]

• "THEATER: 'Show Cause'", The New York Times, December 19, 1985^[11]
• "C. L. R. James, Historian, Critic And Pan-Africanist, Is Dead at 88", The New York Times, June 2, 1989^[12]

• "Me, my children, Chicago and Obama", Chronicle World, November 17, 2008.^[13]

• "C. Gerald Fraser papers, 1954-2015 (bulk 1963-2012)", University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries.