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You don’t have to be tall to be a giant, as evidenced by Xernona Clayton.

Xernona is a civil rights leader and pioneering broadcasting executive. She is also the driving force behind the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame outside of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Historic site downtown. The Walk of Fame includes the footprints of civil rights pioneers – still marching after all these years – including the footprints of Xernona Clayton. She is on the walk because, in 1966, she coordinated the efforts to force the desegregation of all hospital facilities in Atlanta.

In 1967, she began hosting a television show, The Xernona Clayton show, on which she had Calvin Craig, then the Grand Dragon of the KKK in Georgia. That visit prompted a dialogue with Xernona that eventually led to Craig’s resignation from, and eventual renouncement of, the Ku Klux Klan.

She is truly an inspiring individual whose path crossed ours when she was selected by the City of Sandy Springs to speak at the ceremony during which Rabbi Segal received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award. We who were in attendance loved her presentation and her style and knew that she would be an appropriate (and phenomenal) addition to our bima during the Shabbat of Martin Luther King Jr. weekend.

Xernona will deliver the sermon tomorrow evening; we do hope that you can be present to hear the incredible story of this remarkable woman.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Brad