"Xernona Clayton" (August 30 1930)

A civil rights activist and the first woman to host a a TV show in the south,was born to James and Lillie Brewster in Muskogee,Oklahoma.
Her daddy was a respected Baptist minister and both parents managed 
Indian affairs in Oklahoma.Lillie was a quarter Cherokee,and as administrators,Of Indians affairs,she and James worked with disadvantaged Native Americans.She has three older half siblings,and an older brother James,and an older sister,Vera,and a twin sister,Xenobia.

Xernona & Xenobia attended Tennessee State University and graduated in 1952.That summer,they moved,to Chicago where the Urban League 
employed them as undercover agents,working to determine discriminatory hiring practices.Xernona received a scholarship for graduate work at the University of Chicago.While in Chicago,she also taught elementary and high school in the public school.

It was also in Chicago that Xernona met her first husband,Ed Clayton,who was Jet's executive editor at the time.They married in 195,and in 1960,they moved to Los Angeles.There, she played an active role in political campaigns.While in Los Angeles,after hearing an announcement  from President John F.Kennedy requesting people to volunteer their time to help the less fortunate citizens,she organized a group to mentor roughly one hundred high school dropouts,eighty of whom returned to school and graduated.This was one of many instances over her career where Ed reached out to struggling teenagers and young adults.

The Claytons moved to Atlanta in 1965 at the request of Martin Luther King,Jr.,the next year,Ed died suddenly.Xernona & Ed had worked at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) which gave her the opportunity to become close friends with the King family.She helped plan the funeral for Dr.Martin Luther King following his assassination in 1968.

Xernona was politically and civically active in Atlanta,Georgia.In 1966 
she helped organize the Doctors' Committee on Implementation which helped desegregate hospitals in Atlanta.In 1968,she worked for Model 
Cities,the federal associated with the War on Poverty.While there she Calvin Craig the Grand Dragon of the Georgia Ku Klux Klan.After many 
conversations with her regarding race,Craig remarkably decided to leave the KKK,crediting his change of heart of Xerona.

After pointing out the absence of African Americans on TV in Atlanta,Xernona was hired by WAGA-TV,the CBS affiliate in the metropolitan region,to be the hostess of Themes and Variations.The 
show which aired from 1968-1975,made her the first on-air T.V. personality in the South.

When Turner Broadcasting was founded in 1979,Xernona went to work 
for the new Cable TV network.She had a career there spanning three decades.Her last and most prestigious role was as Corporate Vice President for Urban Affairs.In 1993,she founded the Trumpet Awards Foundation,Inc,to recognize accomplishment of African Americans.
She served as the first president and CEO of the organization.

Xerona lives in Atlanta and is married to Judge Paul Lawrence Brady.
She continues her involvement in the city's civic affairs and especially 
with Ebenezer Baptist Church,the church Dr.Martin Luther King and 
his daddy led for decades in Atlanta.