Xernona Clayton
Media Pioneer
August 30, 1930
Civil Rights Activist leader, Educator, Journalist, Television Host, Broadcasting Executive Turner Broadcasting, Philanthropist , Emmy Award Recipient.
The First Black Woman in the south to host a prime time talk show in 1968.
Founder of the Trumpet Awards for Turner Broadcasting to honor African American achievements. The program is seen in over 185 countries.
Founder of the Trumpet Awards charity foundation.
Founder of International Civil Rights Walk of Fame.
Creator of “Moments in History,” one-minute broadcasts on black Americans that are televised daily during Black History Month.
Education:
Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State University (now Tennessee State University), BA (with honors), 1952; graduate study at University of Chicago.
She is an American civil rights leader and broadcasting executive. During the Civil Rights Movement, she worked for the National Urban League and Southern Christian Leadership Conference, where she became involved in the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Later, Clayton went into television, where she became the first African American from the southern United States to host a daily prime time talk show. She became corporate vice president for Turner Broadcasting.
Clayton created the Trumpet Foundation. She was instrumental in the development of the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame which was developed by the foundation to honor the achievements of African Americans and civil rights advocates. She convinced a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan to denounce the Klan. Clayton has been honored by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the city of Atlanta for her work.
Xernona and her twin sister Xenobia were born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, the daughters of Reverend James and Elliott (Lillie) Brewster. Her parents were administrators of Indian affairs in Muskogee, Oklahoma. In 1952, Clayton earned her undergraduate degree with honors from Tennessee State Agricultural and Industrial College in Nashville, Tennessee. She majored in music and minored in education. At TSU, Clayton became a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. She is a Baptist. She pursued graduate studies at the University of Chicago.
Clayton was a member of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the pastor.
Clayton was married to Ed Clayton (who also worked with Dr. King) from 1957 until his death in 1966. She co-authored a revised edition of her late husband’s biography of Martin Luther King Jr. that is titled The Peaceful Warrior.
Following her first husband’s death, Clayton married Paul L. Brady, the first African American to be appointed as a Federal Administrative Law Judge, in 1974. Brady and Clayton have two children from Brady’s previous marriage, Laura and Paul Jr.
Honors
TSU honored Clayton at their Blue and White All-Star Academy Awards in 2005. Clayton’s footprints were added to the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame in 2006. On May 1, 2011, Clayton received the James Weldon Johnson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Detroit branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She received the Local Community Service Award from Spelman College in 2004.
In September 2011, the Atlanta City Council renamed a street and a plaza at Hardy Ivy Park in downtown Atlanta in Clayton’s honor.[ In conjunction with the National Newspaper Publishers Association, the AFC Enterprises Foundation awards an annual Xernona Clayton Black Press Scholarship amounting to $10,000 to a student pursuing a doctoral degree in journalism. The Mattel Toy Company created a “Xernona Clayton Barbie” doll in her honor in 2004.
Xernona Clayton has been honored worldwide for her contributions to humanity, which includes: Bronze Women of the Year for Human Relations, 1969; Communications Woman of Achievement Award by the Atlanta Chapter of American Women in Radio and Television, 1984–85; Superior Television Programming Award by Iota Phi Lambda sorority, 1971; being named one of Georgia’s Most Influential Women 1984 and Black Georgian of the Year 1984; being included in Leadership Atlanta, Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, 1971; named Bethune-Tubman Woman of the Year Award, Chicago, 1985; named Woman of the Year by Black Women Hall of Fame foundation, 1985; The Kizzy Award 1979; Humanitarian Award, Hillside International Truth Center, 1986; First Black woman to receive The Trailblazer Award by the Greater Atlanta Club Business and Professional Woman; named one of the nation’s Top 100 Black Business and Professional Women by Dollars and Sense Magazine, 1985; being one of Seven Atlanta honorees for Black Achievers Award by the Equitable, 1986; being inducted into the Academy of Women Achievers by the YWCA, 1986; Communications Award by the OICs of America, 1986; American Spirit Award by the United States Air Force Recruiting Service, 1987; and receiving the President’s Award by the National Conference of Mayors, 1983.
On International Women’s Day in 2023, the City of Atlanta unveiled a statue of Clayton in the plaza also named in her honor on West Peachtree Street. The location in downtown Atlanta was symbolic for Clayton, as she had been “thrown out of a hotel” on the street during the Civil Rights Movement.