XERNONA CLAYTON
BLACK WORKING WOMAN by Lorrie Irby-Jackson
With a list of accolades that place her prominently among the most es- teemed and accomplished of African- American women . However , instead of resting on those laurels , Ms . Xernona Clayton wants to sustain her prior achievements and even surpass them , incorporating her decades of experi- ence with newer methods and tech- nologies as she assists the next gener- ation in doing the same . “ I think that what we have to do is change with the times ,” said Ms .
Clayton during an exclusive phone chat with Black Working Man . “ some things remain constant , after all , if something that you ’ re doing is going well , why change it ? But we have to be cognizant of and fluid with change . Today is an automated society and technology is the mood of the mo- ment , so you take all there is and com- pile it into one package---take the old , fuse it with the new , and combine it to make everything bigger and better .” Few people could serve as a better example of how vision and initiative blazes paths of opportunity where few others , if anyone , previously dared to tread . In 1965 , just when
Civil Rights laws were being en- forced across the United States , Ms . Clayton moved to one of its most race-conscious southern cities---At- lanta---and organized events for the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference alongside Dr . Martin Luther King Jr ., cementing an everlasting bond with the King family and later accom- panying Coretta on countless speaking tours . Another groundbreaking achievement oc- curred a year later when another initiative she was involved in , Doctors ’ Com- mittee for Implementation , desegregated all hospital facilities within the city and later functioned as a tem- plate for other states , earn- ing acclaim from the Na- tional Medical Association as a result . Her influence became so powerful that , in 1968 , the very same year that Ms . Clayton made his- tory as the first Southernborn African- American female talk show host , the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan left his post and cited her as his catalyst for change . Cultural and gender-specific roadblocks continued to disintegrate over the years due to Ms . Clayton : after a quarter century of employment at Turner Broadcasting , the Ms . Clayton flipped her corporate executive exper- tise into a Corporate Vice
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