Atlanta civil rights activist Xernona Clayton is still 'fearless' at 91

Xernona Clayton, a key aide to Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King who helped sustain the civil rights movement in the 1960s, is interviewed in her offices at the Trumpet Foundation in Atlanta, on May 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Sharon Johnson)

A key aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. who helped sustain the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s says she’s deeply saddened by the hate crimes seeking to terrorize people across America.

But Xernona Clayton has been working for racial harmony since the movement began, and refuses to accept mass killings as routine.

“We’re having too many racial conflicts,” Clayton, 91, told The Associated Press during an interview in her office in Atlanta. “It’s so idiotic that we’ve had that racism in the first place. Because none of us had any say-so about how we got here.”