by Jeffrey Stanley

Jack McCray ’65 is jazz critic for the Charleston, South Carolina Post and Courier. That about sums it up, said McCray, “but more important to me is a research project, the Charleston Jazz Initiative, a multi-year research project that documents, collects and archives, and interprets the contributions of musicians from Charleston and the rest of South Carolina to the jazz world. It is a rich but untold story that has its basis in a 19th century orphanage, the Jenkins Orphanage, and a post-Civil War school for freed blacks, Avery Institute.”

McCray credits some of his love of history and passion for his community to what he learned here at BFS. “For all the obvious reasons, the data I learned was indispensable, but learning thought processes, tolerance, and pursuit of excellence were major...I’m a better person for it.”

He called English teacher Phil Schwartz “a big influence” who was “cool in class, bringing the classics to life.” Schwartz was also cool outside the classroom, “on the basketball court in our tiny gym and even tinier outdoor court on the side of the school building.”

He obtained his liberal arts degree from Shaw University and his master’s in management from Central Michigan University, eventually resettling in his beloved Charleston. Today his son Terry manages a family restaurant business there and his daughter Krystel works in public relations for the city of Charlotte, North Carolina.

McCray can’t help but see his community through the lens of history. It was “the richest British colony at the time of the Revolutionary War and the cradle of American slavery. I grew up there after World War II under the stresses of racial segregation and at the beginning of Charleston’s emergence into the 20th century. It had turned inward since Reconstruction.” The Jazz Initiative is part of an effort to direct Charleston’s history outward to the rest of the world.

McCray’s message to the current generation of BFS students is one of self-reliance in a diverse world. “Take the lessons learned from being responsible for yourself and being exposed to all kinds of people and treating them and yourself with dignity and respect.”