At 93, Xernona Clayton is still fighting the fight for peoples’ rights

ATLANTA — As WSB-TV continues to celebrate its 75th anniversary, we are looking back on a major part of the station’s legacy -- our coverage of the civil rights movement.

Channel 2′s Karyn Greer sat down with one of the last remaining pioneers of the movement, Xernona Clayton.

“When you see a problem try to solve it. You don’t run away from it. Try to solve it,” is what Clayton said has been the driving force for her life -- seeing problems and trying to solve them.

During the civil rights movement, she worked with the Chicago Urban League investigating employment discrimination.

“We found out that all that we’re doing is listing, but not hiring. We were embarrassed. I had all my data from the experience, and it broke down. All the major stores downtown now were open to Black employees,” Clayton said.

Then in 1965, Clayton moved to Atlanta at the request of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to help organize events for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

“I was trying to get a better environment for Dr. King and the work, you know. People respected him all along the world?” Clayton said.

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Clayton developed a deep friendship with Dr. King and his wife, Coretta Scott King, and was a champion of Dr. King’s causes.

Clayton was also instrumental in the desegregation of hospitals in Atlanta.

“We had Black doctors that could only practice in one hospital here in Atlanta, and I worked to make that change,” Clayton said.

Clayton continued her civil rights work through journalism as a broadcasting executive, writer, and host of the Xernona Clayton Show, interviewing Calvin Craig, the grand dragon of the Klu Klux Klan.

“And you changed him. Talk about what his daughter said to you. You truly changed him,” Greer said.

“She said to me, ‘You brought tranquility to our home, and you changed my father,’” Clayton said.

At 93 years of age, Georgians are still recognizing Clayton’s contributions.

She was honored at an Atlanta Hawks game in January and will have a statue dedicated to her this year in Xernona Clayton Plaza in downtown Atlanta.

“How does that make you feel right now knowing you and you’re still fighting the fight?” Greer asked Clayton.

“Well, the same reason I was fighting it in the first place. It needed to have been done,” Clayton said.

RELATED NEWS:

Celebrating the women of the Civil Rights Movement during Women's History Month To keep the movement alive, Civil Rights icon Xernona Clayton says you don't get angry when confronted by a problem. You do something. (WSB-TV)

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