Columbia activist, author, BBQ restaurant owner Kevin Gray dies at 65

Kevin Alexander Gray, an activist, author and barbecue restaurant owner who bridged Columbia’s political and culinary worlds, has died.

Gray died Tuesday, according to friends of his family. He was 65. The cause of death wasn’t immediately known. Leevy’s Funeral Home had a brief listing of Gray’s death, but a full obituary was not yet available Wednesday morning.

He had a long history in progressive politics and activism and was the South Carolina coordinator for the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s 1988 presidential campaign. Gray also was the 1992 Southern political director for Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin’s presidential campaign, according to a bio at the progressive outlet The New Liberator.

Gray was a frequent writer, authoring the book “Waiting for Lightning to Strike: The Fundamentals of Black Politics,” and penning articles for scores of websites and publications, including The Washington Post’s Outlook section and The Nation. He also was an editor of the book “Killing Trayvons: An Anthology of American Violence,” released after the 2012 killing of Black teen Trayvon Martin in Florida.

And in recent years, Gray, who grew up in Spartanburg, was the owner of the popular Railroad BBQ restaurant on Hampton Street in Columbia, across from the Richland County administration building and in the shadow of HBCUs Benedict College and Allen University. The restaurant became known for its ribs, pulled pork and savory side dishes, but also for the plethora of political posters, stickers, buttons and photographs that adorned its walls. A trip to the dining room of Railroad BBQ became a walk through South Carolina’s history and the civil rights movement, in a sense.

Democratic state Rep. Leon Howard has long known Gray, as they both live in the Barhamville Road area just north of Benedict College. Gray also was a longtime friend of Howard’s brother, businessman Puff Howard.

“I knew him as someone who cared deeply about people,” Leon Howard said. “He was deep in the civil rights movement. He worked really close with Jesse Jackson and a lot community leaders who brought a lot of us where we are today. He just loved the community, and he would help people who needed help. And that Railroad BBQ? Man, that was his thing. He would often invite me and others in there to see the history of Columbia.”

Gray was passionate about Columbia and often pushed for advances in the traditionally African American neighborhoods near the heart of downtown. In a 2022 article in The State, he advocated for better housing and infrastructure in the areas surrounding Two Notch Road near the city center.

Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickenmann said he had frequent conversations with Gray and would visit Railroad BBQ. In 2022 Gray appeared on an episode of Rickenmann’s podcast, “Around Town with @ColaMayor,” where the two talked for more than an hour about issues affecting the city.

Rickenmann said Wednesday he was “blown away” when he got word that Gray had died.

“Kevin was a giant who cared very much about his community,” Rickenmann told The State. “He was engaged. He told you not what you wanted to hear, but what you needed to hear. We had a unique relationship. We had a connection because we both grew up in Spartanburg and we both loved the food business and we both loved Columbia. ... Kevin was not afraid to have a conversation, good, bad or indifferent.”

Preach Jacobs is a Columbia DJ, rapper and writer who has penned columns for The State, Free Times and others about issues affecting the Black community. He said he was frequently in contact with Gray, and one of their last text exchanges was about the possibility of writing a column about mercurial rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West.

Jacobs said he was crestfallen to learn of Gray’s death.

“As someone who would write about the Black experience in the South, I definitely see him as a mentor, and someone who would give me perspective, give me advice and give me criticism, when necessary,” Jacobs told The State. “He really loved his people and he loved Columbia, and that was evident in everything he did. ... With his talents he could have gone anywhere. For him to establish a Black-owned business in Columbia, in the community it was established in, was very intentional.”

Jacobs added that Gray “spoke on behalf of marginalized people in the community” and “amplified Black and brown voices that probably didn’t have someone speaking on their behalf” as much as was needed.

J.T. McLawhorn, the longtime leader of the Columbia Urban League, said he has known Gray for decades. He remembers when they marched together from Benedict College to the State House to advocate for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday to be recognized as a holiday, and when they rallied people in support of removing the Confederate flag from atop the State House dome.

McLawhorn said Gray was “very active” in pushing for civil rights. In fact, McLawhorn said Gray was ahead of his time. He called him a “soldier” for the movement.

“Long before people were talking about diversity, equity and inclusion, long before that became a household conversation, Kevin Gray was in the forefront in promoting diversity, equity and inclusion and, importantly, social justice,” McLawhorn said. “He will deeply be missed, and I think he has inspired the current generation to activism. ... We thank God for the gift of Kevin Gray, because he made a difference.”

Sam Davis, a former Columbia city councilman in District 1 from 1998 to 2021, said he long admired Gray’s heart for the community and his keen intellect.

“His thoughts were always about the community and, actually, what we think about our environment and that, if we don’t like it, you have to step forward and put forth some solutions to the problem,” Davis said. “I thought Kevin did a lot to kind of express his thoughts with young people, actually really challenging them to solidify their respect for people who had paved the way for them, especially young African Americans.

“A lot of the things we enjoy and they enjoy are the result of people who fought the good fights and paid the price and really, really endured a lot of struggles.”

District 2 City Councilman Ed McDowell called Gray an “advocate for peace and justice.”

“Kevin would stop what he was doing and be a primary advocate for the issues of the day,” McDowell said. “And he could do it in a way that was very intentional and very radical, and yet, in a way that was very enlightened. And Kevin was just a good guy.”

McDowell said he can remember many nights riding past Railroad BBQ as Gray was preparing the restaurant to be opened. He said Gray seemingly worked around the clock to get every detail, from the menu to the treasure trove of memorabilia that lines the restaurant’s walls, just the way he wanted it.

Railroad BBQ — which was listed as one of the essential restaurants in Columbia in a 2022 project from The State — was a passion project for Gray, and he could often be spotted at lunchtime at the restaurant, greeting customers, making sure they had what they needed and talking about what was going on in Columbia.

In a November video from The State’s Joshua Boucher, Gray outlined why it was important to him to establish Railroad BBQ on Hampton Street, not far from the city’s two HBCUs.

“The restaurant is in the heart of the old Black business district,” Gray said in the video. “I used to edit Black News, which was a block away, so I’ve been working in this district for a long time, even going back to when we did anti-apartheid marches and the Dr. King birthday marches. Those all started at Benedict and Allen. So this seemed like the appropriate place to start to find an area that could be a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-cultural zone.”