LAST month I reluctantly attended a prayer breakfast for the 73rd annual meeting of the Bethel Baptist Association. I went as a guest of the Royal Bank of Canada, which hosted media personalities at the event. I intended to honour the invitation, but dip in and out of the event, because I had a busy Sunday planned.
Thankfully, all did not go according to plan, because the message delivered by featured speaker Dr Xernona Clayton, founder and chief executive officer of the Trumpet Awards Foundation, was a blessing to receive.
Dr Clayton paved the way for black television personalities like Oprah Winfrey and others, as the first black person in the Southern United States to have her own prime time television talk show, ‘The Xernona Clayton’ show. She was the highest ranking female executive in the Turner Network System that includes CNN, Headline News and TBS, serving as corporate executive for more than 30 years.
Her successful media career was no doubt endearing, but above all, I was inspired by her memory of the American civil rights and desegregation movement.
Dr Clayton worked closely with Dr Martin Luther King Jr and his wife, serving them both as a confidant and lifelong friend. She described three powerful and prophetic moments in Dr King’s life, leading up to his assassination on the second floor balcony, outside room 306, on April 4, 1968 at the Lorraine Motel, Memphis, Tennessee.
As Dr Clayton recounts, she drove Dr King to the Atlanta airport for his fatal trip to Memphis. In the car, they spoke about the bizarre behaviour of Dr King’s children, his two sons in particular.
“Martin picked up his briefcase and the boys came and said, ‘daddy don’t go’. He said, ‘oh I’ll be back’. Then one of them grabbed his briefcase and said, ‘daddy please don’t leave us’. We finally got out the front door, headed down the steps; they ran out down the steps and blocked him and said, ‘daddy please don’t leave us’. He said, ‘Don’t worry, I am coming right back’. We got down to the car and they slammed the door to prevent him, still pleading. We finally got the door open and then he got in and they jumped on the roof of my car,” said Dr Clayton.
They shook the children off the hood of the car and drove off, leaving them in the driveway pleading. Dr Clayton said Dr King had never seen his children behave in such a manner, and noted that he had to spend more time with them on his return.