Xernona Clayton talks about working with MLK and Coretta Scott King #MLKDay2026

Xernona Clayton recounts a pivotal incident during her college years in Nashville. While attempting to buy hamburgers at a White Castle with friends, a white employee wielding a butcher knife used a racial slur and threatened them, stating, "You don't belong in here." This direct experience of hatred, particularly the phrase "you don't belong here," profoundly impacted her, solidifying her lifelong commitment to fighting racism.

He said, 'If you don't get out of here, I'm going to cut your heads off.' 'You know you don't belong in here, so get out.' ... The pain was inside of you. It still is today. Because he said two things that bothered me to this day is you don't belong here.

Before joining SCLC, Clayton worked for the National Urban League in Chicago, conducting undercover investigations into major companies like Marshall Field's, Spiegel's, and Montgomery Ward. These companies publicly supported civil rights organizations but refused to hire Black individuals. Clayton would call about job openings, be told they were available, then arrive minutes later only to be informed the position was "just filled," documenting these systemic denials.

They were good guys in terms of like contributing with the NAACP dinner, they'd buy tickets. But they wouldn't hire people. So the Urban League said, 'Well, let's see if they really are good as they pretend to be.' ... I called and said, 'Is that job open?' 'Oh, yes.' ... Less than 5 minutes I'm there. And then 'Oh, gee, we just filled it.'

Xernona Clayton's husband, Ed Clayton, was recruited by Martin Luther King Jr. for his public relations skills. Ed then suggested Xernona could help Coretta Scott King organize concerts to raise money for the SCLC. These concerts became highly successful, leveraging Coretta's status as MLK's wife to draw large crowds and secure vital funding for the movement and staff salaries.

Coretta wanted to do concerts to raise money for SCLC. But she couldn't get off the ground and Ed 'I'll help you do that and my wife is really good. Um she'll help you also.' ... Oh, they they were very successful and she, you know, the the nation now is beginning to embrace Martin Luther King.

Xernona Clayton reveals that Martin Luther King Jr. died a "very depressed man" due to the widespread backlash and loss of support following his April 4, 1967, "Beyond Vietnam" speech. Both white and Black allies, including key financial donors, withdrew their support, leaving him feeling abandoned and unable to comprehend why his friends couldn't understand his anti-war stance.

He died a very depressed man because he had made um that speech about Vietnam... And it seemed like his world shut down. People stopped giving. Even his friends who you could count on for money just dried up. Black folks. Oh, yes.

Just before his final trip to Memphis, MLK confided in Xernona Clayton that he felt the country was "not ready for change" and that all the progress they had made was "about all we're going to get." He expressed his intention to abandon the Poor People's Campaign and take a year off with Coretta in India to "retool" and strategize a new approach upon his return.

He told her, and see, I drove him to the airport to go to Memphis, but he said to me that he felt like the country was at a point now where it was not ready for change. That all the change we've made is about all we're going to get. And so, when he comes back from Memphis, he said, 'When I come back from this trip, Coretta and I going to take a year off to go to India again. We got to retool.' ... He was going to abandon the idea.

Following MLK's assassination, many prominent figures offered generic condolences to Coretta Scott King. However, Robert Kennedy's call stood out for its immediate, practical, and specific actions: he dispatched a team to install nine additional phone lines at the King residence, arranged a private plane to transport MLK's body from Memphis, and instructed Xernona Clayton to secure all hotel rooms in Atlanta for dignitaries attending the funeral.

Mr. Kennedy said, um 'It's obvious, Mrs. King, that um you need more telephone lines because I've been trying to get you ever since the news broke. But Mr.' ... 'is en route to Atlanta now to install nine telephone lines for you. He'll be there at 12:30 tonight.' ... 'So, we've dispatched a plane. It's already there in Atlanta.' ... 'Mrs. Nona, call every hotel in the city of Atlanta. Talk to the management and put a clamp on all the rooms in the hotel, I mean, in the city.'

Xernona Clayton reveals that Richard Nixon, then a Republican candidate, privately visited Coretta Scott King after MLK's assassination. Despite MLK's known negative feelings towards him, Nixon made a personal call, without press or entourage, and presented a personal check to cover the entire educational expenses for all four King children, expressing shared grief and American responsibility.

He said, 'I have brought with me a check, a personal check, that we are feeling um the grief. And because we are Americans, we have to take some responsibility for this. So, as our personal expression of sympathy, we want to educate all four your children. And this check that we have here will cover their expenses wherever they go.'

During MLK's funeral arrangements, when the mainstream press attempted to exclude Ebony and Jet magazines from the pool photography area, Coretta Scott King firmly declared that if the Black press was not allowed, no one would be. This decisive action ensured that Black media, which had consistently supported the movement, received proper access and recognition, leading to Moneta Sleet Jr.'s Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph.

Lerone Bennett came in and said 'Mrs. King, they're not going to let Ebony and Jet into the pool photography area to shoot the funeral.' And according to him she said 'Send word if Ebony's not allowed no one will be allowed.' That's right. Yes. I was.

Xernona Clayton recounts how, while chairing an integrated community board, she engaged in persistent, direct, and non-confrontational dialogue with Calvin Craig, the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. By questioning his bigotry in the context of his Christian faith and role as a deacon, she ultimately influenced him to publicly denounce the KKK and withdraw from the organization, crediting her with changing his views.

Mr. Craig had a press conference he announced he was getting out denouncing the organization and he was getting out. And credited a black woman with changing his negative attitudes and I was that black woman.

Driven by Martin Luther King Jr.'s belief that white people's hatred stemmed from ignorance, and frustrated by negative portrayals of Black Americans in media, Xernona Clayton conceived the Trumpet Awards. Leveraging her position at CNN, she created the awards to showcase the significant contributions and positive achievements of Black individuals, aiming to educate the broader public and change negative attitudes.

I was tired of seeing us on television uh acting like buffoons all the time... I kept hearing in my ear in my head ringing that Dr. King said he didn't think that all white people hated us. That if they knew us you know things would be different. And I said you know what they really don't know us.