{{Short description|American political activist (1957–2023)}} {{Infobox person | name = | image = | birth_date = July 1, 1957 | death_date = March 7, 2023 | alma_mater = Wofford College | notable_works = Waiting for Lightning to Strike: The Fundamentals of Black Politics | boards = ACLU }}

'''Kevin Alexander Gray''' (July 1, 1957 – March 7, 2023) was an American political activist and author, based in South Carolina. Gray was involved in community organizing, working on a variety of issues ranging from racial politics, police violence, third-world politics & relations, union organizing & workers’ rights, grassroots political campaigns, marches, actions & political events.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wypijewski |first=JoAnn |date=December 18, 2023 |title=Kevin Alexander Gray: The Movement's Man in South Carolina |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/kevin-alexander-gray-obituary/ |access-date=January 6, 2023 |work=The Nation}}</ref>

== Early life == Spending his early years in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Gray and his younger sister Valerie were among the first blacks to attend the local all-white Fairforest Elementary School in 1969.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gray |first=Kevin Alexander |date=January 14, 2012 |title=Dawkins: An unsung hero in Spartanburg County education |work=Go Upstate |url=https://www.goupstate.com/story/news/2012/01/15/dawkins-an-unsung-hero-in-spartanburg-county-education/29983023007/ |access-date=June 1, 2023}}</ref>

Gray was a graduate of Wofford College and worked on his doctoral degree in political science at American University. He served as second in command in Company C, 391st Engineers Combat Corps, United States Army Reserves in Spartanburg in the 1980s. The Corps won the Lt. General Emerson C. Ischner Award in 1988 for the number one Company grade reserve unit in the Army Reserves nationwide.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kevin Alexander Gray Condolences |url=https://leevy.com/obituary/mr-kevin-alexander-gray/ |access-date=June 1, 2023 |website=Leevy's Funeral Home Obituary Comments}}</ref> The award is presented annually by the Society of American Military Engineers.

== Activism == Gray served as a national board member of the American Civil Liberties Union for four years and was past nine term president of the South Carolina affiliate of the ACLU.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Karr |first=Gary |date=October 7, 1994 |title=Blacks Blast Democrat For Publicizing Criminal Record of GOP Black Aide |work=The Associated Press |url=https://apnews.com/article/57597f035fdc7c16a3164006d2b8f896 |access-date=June 1, 2023}}</ref>

Gray spoke out frequently against South Africa's system of apartheid<ref>{{Cite news |date=December 6, 2015 |title=Madiba: The evolution of former South African president Nelson Mandela |work=Al Jazeera America |url=http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/the-stream/the-latest/2013/12/6/madiba-the-evolutionofformersouthafricanpresidentnelsonmandela.html |access-date=June 1, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Gray |first=Kevin Alexander |date=December 12, 2013 |title=SC and Mandela: Give credit where credit is due |url=https://www.facingsouth.org/2013/12/sc-and-mandela-give-credit-where-credit-is-due.html |access-date=June 1, 2023 |website=Facing South}}</ref> and in favor of support for Palestine.<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 22, 2014 |title=Radical Black Reading: Summer 2014 |url=https://thepublicarchive.com/?p=4142 |access-date=June 1, 2023 |website=The Public Archive}}</ref> He participated in protests against the flying of the Confederate flag on the South Carolina State House grounds, burning a Confederate flag in the process.<ref>{{Cite web |date=April 20, 2008 |title=Kevin Gray and the Confederate Flag |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevingray/2428308379 |access-date=June 2, 2023 |website=Flickr}}</ref> Gray was among citizens standing with Representative Maggie Wallace Glover and other legislators when they filed a 1991 House resolution to remove the Confederate flag from the State House grounds.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rep. Maggie Glover introduces resolution to remove Confederate Flag from State House |url=https://cdm16817.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16817coll21/id/9918 |access-date=2024-12-15 |website=cdm16817.contentdm.oclc.org |language=en}}</ref>

Gray was a founding member of the Rainbow Coalition in 1986, and former co-chair of the Southern Rainbow Education Project—a coalition of southern activists. He was also a former contributing editor of the Independent Political Action Bulletin.

Gray organized the Harriet Tubman Freedom House Project which focused on community based political and cultural education. He was Organizer of the National Mobilization Committee Against the Drug War. Advisory board member of DRC Net (Drug Policy Reform Coalition). Gray gave a featured speech at public rallies held after the 2015 Charleston Church Shooting at [Mother] Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gray |first=Kevin Alexander |date=July 17, 2015 |title=Beyond White / Man's Country [the complete text of Kevin Alexander Gray's July 4th 2015 speech at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia and in Charleston in the days following the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church murders.] |url=https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/17/beyond-white-mans-country/ |access-date=June 2, 2023 |website=CounterPunch}}</ref>

== Political campaigns == {{further|Jesse Jackson 1988 presidential campaign|Tom Harkin 1992 presidential campaign|2010 United States Senate election in South Carolina|2002 South Carolina gubernatorial election}}

Gray served as South Carolina coordinator for the 1988 presidential campaign of Jesse Jackson,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Edsall |first=Thomas B. |date=March 13, 1988 |title=JACKSON WINS WITH MAJORITY IN SOUTH CAROLINA CAUCUSES |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1988/03/13/jackson-wins-with-majority-in-south-carolina-caucuses/b3179850-3023-43b3-ac31-98c5b412e019/ |access-date=June 2, 2023}}</ref> 1992 southern political director for the presidential campaign of Iowa Senator Tom Harkin and the 2010 US Senate campaign of Green Party candidate Tom Clements.<ref>{{Cite web |last=West |first=Scott |date=July 21, 2011 |title=Green Senate candidate runs historic campaign |url=https://greenpagesnews.org/green-senate-candidate-runs-historic-campaign/ |access-date=June 1, 2023 |website=Green Pages News}}</ref>

In 1997, Gray was an organizer for the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition’s anti-Proposition 209 marches in San Francisco and Sacramento, California.

In 2002, Gray was a gubernatorial candidate representing the South Carolina United Citizens’ Party & Green Party. He did not have the required signatures to be on the ballot, and consequently ran as a write-in candidate.<ref>{{Cite news |last=O'Cain |first=Susan |date=July 16, 2002 |title=Gray to run as write in candidate |work=WLTX-TV |url=https://www.wltx.com/article/news/gray-to-run-as-write-in-candidate/101-384300363 |access-date=June 1, 2023}}</ref>

== Written works ==

Gray authored/edited the following books:

* ''Waiting for Lightning to Strike: The Fundamentals of Black Politics: Selected Essays on Politics & Culture''. 2008. AK Press. {{ISBN|978-1-904859-91-8}} * ''The Decline of Black Politics – From Malcolm X to Barack Obama''. 2008. Verso Books. {{ISBN|978-1-84467-284-4}} * Editor, ''Killing Trayvons: An Anthology of Violence''. 2014, CounterPunch. {{ISBN|978-0-692-21399-5}}

=== Additional publications ===

Additional publications by Gray included:

* “A Call for a New Anti-War Movement” appeared in ''How to Legalize Drugs: Public Health, Social Science and Civil Liberties Perspective,'' edited by Dr. Jefferson Fish of St. John’s University in 1998. The book is a collection of works by US drug policy experts. Gray's essay examined cultural and ideological aspects of the impact of the “war on drugs” on African Americans. {{ISBN|978-0-7657-0151-0}} * “Soul Brother? Bill Clinton and Black America” in Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair’s ''Dime's Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils'', published by CounterPunch, 2004. {{ISBN|978-1-904859-03-1}} * “The Legacy of Strom Thurmond” in Jack Newfield’s ''American Monsters: 44 Rats, Blackhats and Plutocrats'', published by Thunder's Mouth Press, 2004. {{ISBN|978-1-56025-554-3}} * ''Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion''. Contributor, with Ralph Nader and Kathy Kelly. Jeffrey St. Clair and Joshua Frank, eds. AK Press, 2012. {{ISBN|978-1-84935-110-2}} * “What Malcolm Might Say” in ''Peace Not Terror: Leaders of the Antiwar Movement Speak Out Against U.S. Foreign Policy Post 9/11'', edited by Mary Susannah Robbins, Lexington Books, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-7391-2497-0}}

Gray was a weekly guest on Dave Marsh’s Sirius XM satellite radio show “''Live From the Land of Hopes and Dreams''” and a frequent panelist on Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Sunday radio broadcast, and ''NewsTalk'' on Irish National Radio. Other essays by Gray on race and politics appeared in ''The Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy'' – “The Intensification of Racial Solidarity in the 1990s under the guise of Black Nationalism” (1996); ''The Progressive Magazine'', ''Counterpunch'', ''The Washington Post'' Outlook Section, ''Emerge'', ''One Magazine'', ''The Nation, The New Liberator, The American University Graduate Review'' & numerous other international, national, regional & local publications.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kolhatkar |first=Sonali |date=March 16, 2023 |title=What I Learned From Kevin Alexander Gray |work=Yes Magazine |url=https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2023/03/16/kevin-alexander-gray-obituary |access-date=June 1, 2023}}</ref> Gray’s essays on race, politics, cultural and world affairs were found online at Counterpunch.com, The Black Agenda Report, “Holla If You Hear Me” blog and The Black Commentator. Gray was a frequent columnist for the national monthly magazine ''The Progressive'', a contributing writer for ''The Charleston Chronicle'' and ''The Free Times'' of Columbia and a former managing editor and contributing editor of ''Black News'' in Columbia.

== Later life and death == In 2020 Gray opened Railroad BBQ on Hampton Street in Columbia, a restaurant and repository for the hundreds of civil and human rights ephemera he collected over the years.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Clarey |first=David |date=March 8, 2023 |title=A pair of Columbia restaurants opened as COVID-19 escalated — how are they doing? |work=Post and Courier |url=https://www.postandcourier.com/free-times/news/covid19/a-pair-of-columbia-restaurants-opened-as-covid-19-escalated-how-are-they-doing/article_802bfdee-6ec1-11ea-b53f-a74ea2b1b23a.html |access-date=June 1, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Gray |first=Kevin Alexander |date=December 23, 2020 |title=Smoking Meat, Hoping to Survive |work=The Nation |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/society/covid-workers-restaurants-lockdown-economy/ |access-date=June 2, 2023}}</ref>

Gray died on March 7, 2023.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wade |first=Hannah |date=March 8, 2023 |title=Kevin Alexander Gray, Columbia civil rights activist and restaurant owner, has died |work=Post and Courier |url=https://www.postandcourier.com/columbia/politics/kevin-alexander-gray-columbia-civil-rights-activist-and-restaurant-owner-has-died/article_fe398728-bdbb-11ed-8e6c-ebe0e9fedb0a.html#newsletter-popup |access-date=June 1, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=March 8, 2023 |title=Longtime South Carolina activist Kevin Alexander Gray dies |work=WLTX-TV |url=https://www.wltx.com/article/news/local/kevin-alexander-gray-dies/101-801449a4-8f3c-4da7-a277-156eddd6647d |access-date=June 1, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Pierre |first=Jemima |date=March 15, 2023 |title=Farewell, Senior Brother: In Memory of Kevin Alexander Gray |work=Black Agenda Report |url=https://www.blackagendareport.com/farewell-senior-brother-memory-kevin-alexander-gray |access-date=June 1, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=St. Clair |first=Jeffrey |date=March 8, 2023 |title=Kevin Alexander Gray: A Mighty Heart Has Stopped But It Didn't Fail |work=Counterpunch |url=https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/03/08/kevin-alexander-gray-a-mighty-heart-has-stopped-but-it-didnt-fail/ |access-date=June 1, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=March 9, 2023 |title=Kevin Alexander Gray, Civil Rights Activist and Jesse Jackson SC Campaign Mgr., Dies at 65 |work=Democracy Now |url=https://www.democracynow.org/2023/3/9/headlines/kevin_alexander_gray_civil_rights_activist_and_jesse_jackson_sc_campaign_mgr_dies_at_65 |access-date=June 1, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=Nevin |date=March 8, 2023 |title=Midlands activist and author dies at 65-years-old |work=WIS-TV |url=https://www.wistv.com/2023/03/08/midlands-activist-author-dies-65-years-old/ |access-date=June 1, 2023}}</ref> He was recognized by Richland County (SC) Council,<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 21, 2023 |title=Minutes |url=https://www.richlandcountysc.gov/Portals/0/Departments/CountyCouncil/Minutes/Reg_03_21_23.pdf |access-date=June 1, 2023 |website=Richland County Council}}</ref> the South Carolina Legislature,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Legislature |first=South Carolina |date=March 28, 2023 |title=A Concurrent resolution: To Express the Profound Sorrow of the Members of the South Carolina House of Representatives Upon the Passing of Kevin Alexander Gray of Richland County and to Extend Their Deepest Sympathy to His Large and Loving Family and His Many Friends. |url=https://www.scstatehouse.gov//sess125_2023-2024/prever/4174_20230328.htm |access-date=June 1, 2023 |website=South Carolina Legislature}}</ref> and by Congressman Jim Clyburn.<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 10, 2023 |title=Tribute to Kevin Alexander Gray by Hon. James E. Clyburn |url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-2023-03-10/html/CREC-2023-03-10-pt1-PgE210-4.htm |access-date=June 1, 2023 |website=Congressional Record}}</ref>

== External links ==

* [https://www.julianbondoralhistoryproject.org/kevin-alexander-gray Kevin Alexander Gray interview] on the Julian Bond Oral History Project, American University School of Public Affairs * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6bMqYJ73T8 Reaching Higher Ground: Lessons from the Political Writings of Kevin Alexander Gray], with Ruth Conniff, American University Scholar Gregg Ivers, The Progressive publisher Norman Stockwell and John Nichols * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tUpfGSwmcM Kevin Alexander Gray] on Left of Black with Mark Anthony Neal * [https://www.msnbc.com/up-with-chris-hayes/watch/gov-haley-appoints-tea-party-rep-to-demints-seat-13085763840 Kevin Alexander Gray] on MSNBC with Chris Hayes * [https://www.youtube.com/@KhalidGamba Kevin Alexander Gray channel] on YouTube * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5uicYT7-Ug&list=PL8AC7B9CE97B64BDD Kevin Alexander Gray on The Progressive panel on the Prison Industrial Complex], May 2, 2009 * [https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/kevin-alexander-gray-obituary/ Image: Kevin Alexander Gray] in The Nation

== References == {{reflist}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Kevin Alexander}} Category:1957 births Category:2023 deaths Category:Activists from South Carolina Category:Wofford College alumni Category:American University alumni Category:Writers from South Carolina Category:People from Spartanburg, South Carolina