Jesse Gray (May 14, 1923 – January 2, 1988) was an American civil rights leader and politician from New York.

He came to New York City and was a tailor and a member of the National Maritime Union in the 1940s.

To emphasize bad conditions and infestation with vermin, the tenants caught rats in their tenements and showed them to the judge of the New York City Civil Court.

Gray was elected to the New York State Assembly (70th D.) in November 1972, and was a member in 1973 and 1974.

He died on January 2, 1988, at the Beth Abraham Home in the Bronx, after lying in a coma for several years.