McCray's Backyard BBQ and Seafood celebrates 90th anniversary with outdoor gathering

A Black business in West Palm Beach in 1934 was a hope, an acorn planted with the dream that it could — with proper tending and good fortune — become a large and powerful oak.

Today, McCray's Backyard Barbecue and Seafood is that oak, a well-established business boasting longstanding ties to West Palm Beach and Riviera Beach.

To commemorate those 90 years in business, McCray's is hosting a three-day outdoor event at its West Palm Beach location at 3950 Georgia Avenue. The event, which began Friday and will run through Sunday, features a DJ, a pool, art and, of course, food. Lots and lots of food.

Food has been at the heart of McCray's since its founding all of those years ago. Food and fight.

"It was some hard times I had to go through," said Derrick McCray, the current owner of the business. "It was a lot."

McCray was speaking of the business dispute that forced his move from the 45th Street location in Riviera Beach customers had come to know. He was also speaking of the deaths of his father, Herman McCray Jr., his mother, Lillian McCray and his brother, Demetrius McCray Sr.

All had taken their turns steering the business started in 1934 by Derrick McCray's great-grand-aunt and her husband, Jay Harvey.

West Palm Beach was a very different place then. Its population was edging toward 30,000 people, a far cry from the 117,000 plus it boasts today.

Florida is sunshine and palm trees today, but it was then a mosquito-marred patch that was frequently inhospitable to Black people in general, not to mention Black people with the temerity to open a business.

Larry Little, the Miami Dolphins legend and long-time friend of Derrick McCray, said he knows it couldn't have been an easy road.

"I heard him tell the story of the hell his grandfather caught in Palm Beach County," said Little, who, like another former NFL standout, Anthony Carter, stopped by Saturday to join in the celebration and enjoy some barbecue.

On Saturday, it was all smiles on Georgia Avenue, as children splashed in the pool, music blared and Derrick McCray's many, many friends and relatives came by with a dap and a hug.

McCray, once a stellar athlete who made it to the NFL, was in an expansive mood, trying to tell a little of his business' history as people filed into a small studio near his business to say hello.

What started with Harvey passed on to Herman McCray in the late 1960s. Herman McCray would reorient the business and use it as a platform for civil rights work, advocating for Black residents of West Palm Beach and Riviera Beach.

As a boy in the 1940s, he had lost his father and needed work. He went to Harvey and asked for a job. "My father ended up learning how to cook ribs, clean ribs, everything," McCray said. "(Harvey) brought him up as a son."

When it was Herman's turn to run the business, he did so with the help of his own sons.

"I worked for my dad as a kid," McCray said, who took over the business in the early 2000s as the health of his parents began to fail. "I had to step up and be the man and take care of my parents."

It hasn't been an easy road, but McCray has friendships with people who have been happy to lend a hand as times got tough. Those friends include Little and Carter and Rodney Mayo, who runs businesses on Clematis Street and who has allowed McCray to operate on Georgia Avenue property he owns.

McCray's NFL ties have been important, too. He has been a food vendor at 18 Super Bowls now and plans to bring his barbecue and special sauces to New Orleans when the Big Easy hosts the big game in February.

In August, he plans to open two new locations, one at Roseland Drive and Henry Avenue and another at 237 Blue Heron Blvd. in Riviera Beach.

McCray, whose two sons, 35-year old Derrick McCray Jr. and 31-year old Kindall Jackson, help him with the business, has connected with a consultant, Charlie Guzzetta of DEPO LLC, to help him expand opportunities.

Guzzetta said the future is bright for McCray's and could include franchising, sauce manufacturing and corporate store development. "There's great opportunity for growth and development with McCray's," Guzzetta said.

McCray said he sees things the same way. He said he'd be open to partnering with investors to continue growing the business.

"Our hopes have always been big," McCray said. "I want to set it up for another 100 years."

McCray's Backyard Barbecue and Seafood celebration

Hours : Sunday, June 30, the celebration runs from 1 to 5 p.m.

Location : The Peach, 3950 Georgia Ave. in West Palm Beach

Wayne Washington is a journalist covering West Palm Beach, Riviera Beach and race relations for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at wwashington@pbpost.com. Help support our work; subscribe today .

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: McCray's Backyard BBQ and Seafood celebrates 90th anniversary with outdoor gathering