Art

International Women’s Day: Civil Rights Icon Xernona Clayton, Other ‘Herstory Sheroes’ Honored in Atlanta

Civil rights and media icon Xernona Clayton became the first woman to be enshrined with a statue in downtown Atlanta on March 8, 2023, International Women’s Day. The eight-foot statue with its arms open, high on a pedestal, looks down on Xernona Clayton Plaza, making the petite icon a giant in the cradle city of the modern Civil Rights Movement.

Published

1 year ago

March 16, 2023

Oakland Post

Xernona Clayton (center), Atlanta mayor Andre Dickens (right) and statue sculptor Ed Dwight as the statue of Xernona Clayton is unveiled in Downtown Atlanta, Georgia on Wednesday, March 8, 2023. Photo by Maxim Elramsisy, California Black Media.

By Maxim Elramsisy

California Black Media

Civil rights and media icon Xernona Clayton became the first woman to be enshrined with a statue in downtown Atlanta on March 8, 2023, International Women’s Day.

The eight-foot statue with its arms open, high on a pedestal, looks down on Xernona Clayton Plaza, making the petite icon a giant in the cradle city of the modern Civil Rights Movement.

World renowned sculptor Ed Dwight created the bronze statue despite challenges with his vision. With Dwight by her side, Clayton announced that it would be his final commissioned project. “As he was making this statue he lost vision in his good eye,” Clayton said at a private dinner before the unveiling. “But if he could do this without seeing, imagine what he could do if he had vision.”

More than 20 speakers, including representatives from the Bahamas and Ghana, praised Clayton at the unveiling ceremony, which was followed by “High Heels in High Places,” an event honoring distinguished women in business and journalism.

Among the “sheroes: honored at the dinner were California Black Media Executive Director Regina Brown Wilson and LA Focus Publisher Lisa Collins. Clayton also acknowledged the mothers of several local celebrities, including Silvia Dickens, mother of Atlanta mayor Andre Dickens, Trice Morgan, mother of rapper T.I., and Mary Tucker, mother of comedian Chris Tucker.

A few of the speakers at the event claimed to be Clayton’s boyfriends, including Mayor Andre Dickens, who began working on the project as a city councilman, and Clayton’s close friend and fellow civil rights icon, Ambassador Andrew Young. Former CNN President, Tom Johnson spoke on behalf of Ted Turner, who was ill, lauding Clayton’s outstanding achievements and attesting to her contributions to broadcast media. Clayton was also a consistent supporter of the Black press across the country.

Martin Luther King III reflected on his memories of Clayton growing up. “There is no greater honor than what is being done here today,” said King III.

At the unveiling, Clayton recalled arranging logistics for a meeting between Dr. King and supporters of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the heart of Atlanta. “I pride myself in getting everything right before I start out, and I knew I had all my details in order for this special luncheon hosted by Dr. King, but everything went wrong,” Clayton said.

The motel which supposedly had an “open door policy,” expressly told Dr. King to leave. “I, Xernona Clayton was thrown out of a hotel. Now, you are standing backed by a street named Xernona Clayton Way.”

“The idea for a monument to Xernona Clayton was born from a 4 a.m. meeting with her in 2020. Our kids didn’t know who she was, and we felt that such an inspiring figure deserved recognition,” said Project Co-Founder Mariela Romero, a Latina journalist, originally from Venezuela, who co-presented the idea for the statue and has been one of the forces helping to make the monument a reality.

Romero said when she learned about Clayton’s contributions to the Civil Rights Movement and all her personal accomplishments, she was surprised that more Americans of all races did not know about her life story and legacy.

“Seeing the statue standing proudly in Xernona Clayton Plaza, facing downtown Atlanta, fills me with incredible pride and accomplishment,” Romero added.

“This project was important to us because Xernona Clayton has been a role model, she has dedicated her life to serving others and we have always admired her tenacity, grace, and vision.”

Romero partnered with philanthropist and Bank of America-Merrill executive Rick Baker to spearhead the campaign that made Clayton’s monument a reality.

Xernona Clayton (center) and Xernona Clayton Statue Project Co-Creators Mariana Romero (Left) and Rich Baker (right) cross Xernona Clayton Way in Downtown Atlanta, Georgia toward the unveiling of the Xernona Clayton statue on Wednesday, March 8, 2023. Photo by Maxim Elramsisy, California Black Media.

Clayton became involved in the civil rights movement working for the National Urban League in Chicago. She went undercover to investigate employment discrimination against African Americans at Marshall Fields, a major Chicago department store.

She moved to Atlanta at the behest of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, where she organized events for SCLC and grew close with Dr. King and his wife, Coretta Scott King.

Clayton was instrumental in the desegregation of Atlanta’s hospitals by organizing the city’s Black doctors. In 1967, Clayton became the first Black female in the southern U.S. to host a weekly prime time talk show. The show eventually came to be known as “The Xernona Clayton Show.”

In 1968, Clayton’s impact in the fight against bigotry became clear when Calvin Craig, a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, denounced the Klan, crediting Clayton’s influence in the decision.

In 1988, Clayton was named Corporate Vice President for Urban Affairs with Turner Broadcasting System. In her role she served as liaison between Turner Broadcasting and civil rights groups, both in Atlanta and across the country.

As a broadcast executive, Clayton founded the Trumpet Foundation and, with Turner Broadcasting, established the prestigious Trumpet Awards in 1993 to highlight the achievements and contributions of African Americans.

With the unveiling of the Xernona Clayton statue, an influential Black woman is finally immortalized in Atlanta, a city that still holds several confederate monuments and countless stories and memories of its history in the segregated south.

This California Black Media article was supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library

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Art

Marin County: A Snapshot of California’s Black History Is on Display

The Marin County Office of Education, located at 1111 Las Gallinas Ave in San Rafael, will host the extraordinary exhibit, “The Legacy of Marin City: A California Black History Story (1942-1960),” from Feb. 1 to May 31, 2024. The interactive, historical, and immersive exhibit featuring memorabilia from Black shipyard workers who migrated from the South to the West Coast to work at the Marinship shipyard will provide an enriching experience for students and school staff. Community organizations will also be invited to tour the exhibit.

Published

4 days ago

April 16, 2024

Oakland Post

Early photo of Marin City in the exhibit showing the first department store, barber shop, and liquor store. (Photo by Godfrey Lee)

By Post Staff

The interactive, historical, and immersive exhibit featuring memorabilia from Black shipyard workers who migrated from the South to the West Coast to work at the Marinship shipyard will provide an enriching experience for students and school staff. Community organizations will also be invited to tour the exhibit.

All will have the opportunity to visit and be guided by its curator Felecia Gaston.

The exhibit will include photographs, articles and artifacts about the Black experience in Marin City from 1942 to 1960 from the Felecia Gaston Collection, the Anne T. Kent California Room Collection, The Ruth Marion and Pirkle Jones Collection, The Bancroft Library, and the Daniel Ruark Collection.

It also features contemporary original artwork by Chuck D of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group Public Enemy, clay sculptures by San Francisco-based artist Kaytea Petro, and art pieces made by Marin City youth in collaboration with Lynn Sondag, Associate Professor of Art at Dominican University of California.

The exhibit explores how Marin City residents endured housing inequities over the years and captures the history of plans to remove Black residents from the area after World War II. Throughout, it embodies the spirit of survival and endurance that emboldened the people who made Marin City home.

Felecia Gaston is the author of the commemorative book, ‘A Brand New Start…This is Home: The Story of World War II Marinship and the Legacy of Marin City.’ Thanks to the generous contribution of benefactors, a set of Felecia’s book will be placed in every public elementary, middle, and high school library in Marin.

In addition, educators and librarians at each school will have the opportunity to engage with Felecia in a review of best practices for utilizing the valuable primary sources within the book.

“Our goal is to provide students with the opportunity to learn from these significant and historical contributions to Marin County, California, and the United States,” said John Carroll, Marin County Superintendent of Schools.

“By engaging with Felecia’s book and then visiting the exhibit, students will be able to further connect their knowledge and gain a deeper understanding of this significant historical period,” Carroll continued.

Felecia Gaston adds, “The Marin County Office of Education’s decision to bring the Marin City Historical Traveling Exhibit and publication, ‘A Brand New Start…This is Home’ to young students is intentional and plays a substantial role in the educational world. It is imperative that our community knows the contributions of Marin City Black residents to Marin County. Our youth are best placed to lead this transformation.”

The Marin County Office of Education will host an Open House Reception of the exhibit’s debut on Feb. 1 from 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.. All school staff, educators, librarians, and community members are encouraged to attend to preview the exhibit and connect with Felecia Gaston. To contact Gaston, email MarinCityLegacy@marinschools.org

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Activism

Alternative Outcome to Slayings by Police Explored in One-Man Play

BLACK MEN EVERYWHERE! is the explosive new one man play written, directed, and performed by Jinho “Piper” Ferreira. Set against the backdrop of a presidential election, the play explores how political and cultural leaders wield the myth of the dangerous Black man to manipulate the masses for personal gain. Piper penned the follow-up to his ground-breaking solo play, “Cops and Robbers,” after an impromptu cross-country Black history tour.

Published

2 months ago

February 16, 2024

Oakland Post

BLACK MEN EVERYWHERE! is the explosive new one man play written, directed, and performed by Jinho “Piper” Ferreira.

Special to The Post

What would happen if police officers who have gotten off for killing unarmed Black people started turning up dead?

Piper penned the follow-up to his ground-breaking solo play, “Cops and Robbers,” after an impromptu cross-country Black history tour.

“My wife and I had been talking about it for years,” Ferreira said. They had taken their three children to Brazil several times and West Africa but had yet to explore their history as Black people in this country. “It was Juneteenth last year and I realized we had a few weeks to make it happen, so we just jumped in the car and left” Piper said.

Three weeks later the family had seen everything from the African American Museum of History and Culture in Wash., D.C., to the phenomenally preserved Whitney Plantation in Louisiana. They’d stood outside of the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., and paid their respects at the Africa Town cemetery – where the passengers of the Clotilda (the last known U.S. slave ship to smuggle captured Africans into this country) were buried near Mobile, Ala.

“We had the kids keep a journal of the trip and my wife and I took notes, but once we got back home, I knew I had to make the pen move,” he said.

Ferreira plays 21 characters in the 60-minute emotional roller coaster ride; personalities we all know. While brilliantly weaving in themes of revolution, treachery, and revenge, “Black Men Everywhere!” is surprisingly — more than anything else — a love story.

“I wrote the play for Black men and everyone who loves us,” Ferreira said. “The play is narrated by a sistah and performed in front of the deeply spiritual artwork of Nedra T. Williams, an Oakland priestess of Olokun. It’s called ‘Black Men Everywhere!’ but we don’t exist without the Black woman.”

For tickets, please go to: http://tinyurl.com/5dm3mhra

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Art

City of Stockton Seeks Applications for Public Art Murals

The City of Stockton Arts Commission (SAC) has announced the opportunity for artist(s) and/or artist teams to apply to design and paint original artwork on City-owned property through a Public Art Mural Program. The deadline for applications is Friday, March 8, 2024, at 5 p.m. Applications and additional information are available online at www.stocktonca.gov/publicart.

Published

3 months ago

January 24, 2024

Oakland Post

The Public Art Mural Program incentivizes mural installations by providing city funding and the means of curating the City’s collection of murals.

City of Stockton

The deadline for applications is Friday, March 8, 2024, at 5 p.m. Applications and additional information are available online at www.stocktonca.gov/publicart.

The Public Art Mural Program incentivizes mural installations by providing city funding and the means of curating the City’s collection of murals.

This program has $50,000 in available funds for artist(s) and is also available for those who have already identified funds and would like to complete a mural project on city-owned property. Applications will be reviewed on a competitive basis and selected by the SAC.

To learn more about the Stockton Arts Commission (SAC) or qualifications and eligibility for Public Art Mural Program, please visit www.stocktonca.gov/publicart or call the Community Services Department at (209) 937-8206.