Born in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Her parents were administrators of Indian affairs and supported Native Americans in need. She completed her undergraduate studies in music and education in the Tennessee State Agricultural and Industrial College, and continued to graduate school at the University of Chicago. In Chicago, she became active in the Civil Rights Movement, working undercover for the National Urban League, investigating racial discrimination for African-American employees. At that time, she met her first husband, Ed Clayton, who was also a civil rights activist. In 1965, upon the request of Martin Luther King, the Claytons’ moved to Atlanta, GA, where she continued her political and activism work. Along with Coretta Scott King, she organized events for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and they traveled together for Mrs. Kings’ concert tours across the state. In the following years, she was appointed as a coordinator for the Doctors’ Committee for Implementation, advocating for the desegregation of hospital facilities in Atlanta. The project became a model for desegregation throughout the country, receiving national honor from the National Medical Association. Through the program, she met Calvin Craig, the Grand Dragon of the Georgia Ku Klux Klan, and persuade him to denounce the KKK. In 1968 Clayton became the first African-American in the South to host a daily prime time television show when she started hosting her talk show – “The Xernona Clayton Show,” which ran for seven years. In 1979, she joined Turner Broadcasting as a documentary producer and retired after 30 years as the director and vice-president of public affairs. In 1993 she founded the Trumpet Awards Foundation Inc, honoring accomplishments of African-Americans every year. After retiring from Turner Broadcasting, she began serving on boards of various organizations, including the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change and the Board of Review for the state of Georgia’s Department of Labor. In 2004 she initiated the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta.   Read more...