Tom Hall – lawyer, musician, activist, lover of BBQ, people and fine food – dies at 56

Columbia lawyer Tom Hall, who died in a weekend car crash on Bluff Road, packed so many ventures into his brief life it was hard to believe he was just one person.

Besides being active in the courthouse, the 56-year-old Hall was a rock musician with his band the Plowboys, a descendant of a Confederate soldier who led protests and made a documentary film against the Confederate flag, a community organizer, a founder of the Columbia Mardi Gras festival and so much a lover of fine barbecue and food that he started at least two restaurants.

And he was a hero.

In October, 2015, he and his former wife Julie, an assistant prosecutor in the 6th Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Office, along with their then-teen sons Brice and Graham, helped rescue an 87-year-old man trapped in his car in a flood north of Columbia.

The rescue happened near a small, flood-prone lake near Exit 24 of Interstate 77. The Halls lived nearby, and knowing the area’s history for flooding, they went door-to-door to make sure no one was trapped. But off a cut-through road Tom Hall saw a car trapped in a rising creek. An arm was sticking out of the car window.

“No way was that man going to die out there,” Tom Hall told a reporter later.

While his wife went for a boat and life jackets, Hall realized the water was rising and saw the man was holding a Yorkshire terrier dog. He sprung into action, making his way to the car using ropes tied to trees, and saved the man and his dog. The man turned out to be a World War II survivor of Nazi terror who had been born in Germany.

A native of Chester and a 1989 graduate of The Citadel, Hall was named for his great-great-grandfather, Dr. Thomas Wade Moore of Chester, a signer of the secessionist document that that led to the Civil War. His great-grandfather was Maj. Tom Brice who fought for the Confederacy.

Although Hall was proud of his heritage, for years he was active in efforts to take the Confederate Flag down from the State House dome and then the capitol grounds.

His movie, “Compromised,” opened at The Nickelodeon theater in Columbia within weeks of the massacre of nine Black parishioners at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston by a white supremacist.

“A gentleman is a gentle person,” Hall said in an interview with The Herald of Rock Hill. “A gentleman does not want to offend a huge segment of the population by that flag. That flag hurts every Black person in this state of South Carolina, and no gentleman would do that. The flag is not South Carolina. That flag is meant by racists to show Blacks that every time they see that flag, that to them Blacks are second class. Not as good. It must go — now.”

In 2009, Hall and former journalist Dan Huntley of Charlotte opened Smoke Southern Barbecue Revival in Blythewood. “Everybody here is over-educated. We’re over-educated middle-aged white guys who lost their jobs and like to drink beer and cook barbecue,” the two told reporters in an announcement about their venture, now closed.

“Tom was like a character in a really good Southern movie — a lawyer, a dad of three fine boys, a songwriter, playwright, a New Orleans Mardi Gras Indian who played a leading role in bringing down the Confederate flag from over the S.C. State House. He was a Carolina version of Jerry Lee Lewis. I’m gonna miss that dude (& his fireball life force),” Huntley wrote on his Facebook page.

Bringing down the Confederate flag and opening a music-filled dining establishment were part of Hall’s efforts to improve race relations.

“There’s two things that can bring white folks and black folks together, and that’s music and food,” Hall told a reporter from The State who visited Hall in 2002 at a dining establishment he co-owned in Chester County where he played his guitar.

Hall also started a restaurant in Georgetown, called Between the Antlers. The restaurant published a notice on its Facebook page noting Hall’s death.

“Our entire Antler family is devastated and there are no words to explain our grief. Please in the coming days keep Amy (Hall’s wife) and their entire family in your prayers,” the note said.

Columbia attorney Jack Duncan described Hall as a good lawyer. “He had an inventive mind and thought creatively when it came to the law as well as his other projects.”

State Judge Brian Gibbons of Chester was a friend for decades. Gibbons recalled Hall as “full of life, a bridge builder, and a bundle of energy with a passion for relationships....a Renaissance man who was a poet, with great musical taste,” Gibbons said. Hall was “a great friend who died way too young.”

Hall died at the scene in a single-car crash at 11:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 20, on McCords Ferry Road at Bluff Road, according to the Richland County Coroner’s Office. The S.C. Highway Patrol is investigating.

“Tom was one of a kind. He was passionate about the things he cared for and he cared for just about everything and everyone. I never knew anyone with a more diverse group of interests. His death leaves a hole in the heart of everyone who was fortunate enough to really get to know him,” said Kevin Brackett, 16th Judicial Circuit Solicitor, which includes York and Union counties

A service for Hall will be held Thursday, Jan. 25, at 2 pm at the Saint Matthews Parish. There will be a short church service open to the public followed by a private graveside service and a reception at the church afterwards, followed by a reception at the Halls’ house.

The church address is 1164 Fort Motte Road, Saint Matthews, SC, 29135.

This story was originally published January 23, 2024 at 12:04 PM with the headline "Tom Hall – lawyer, musician, activist, lover of BBQ, people and fine food – dies at 56."