Avery Clayton, former president and chief executive officer of the Mayme Clayton Library & Museum, died on November 26. He was 62.
Clayton died at his Culver City home while entertaining guests on Thanksgiving Day.
Clayton was the eldest son of librarian and black history historian Mayme A. Clayton, who for more than 40 years prowled bookstores and garage sales to amass one of the largest collections of black history memorabilia in the country. The collection reportedly rivals that of New York's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and has been labeled by some scholars as one of the most important of its kind.
Carrying on his mother's mission to preserve and promote the importance of black history to the community, Clayton worked to bring the collection to the public. Prior to his mother's death in 2006, he secured a permanent home for the 20,000-plus-piece collection at 4130 Overland Ave. in Culver City on the Westside, and for the past three years had worked to raise funds to open the library to the public.
Earlier this year, Clayton was the keynote speaker at the Discover Your Roots conference, where he exhibited some of the artifacts.
Through her research of her family history, Lillian Glover, chair of the conference, found that she was related to Clayton.
"We chose Avery ... because of the contributions that his mother ... made to the black community. He's incredible with the thing he's doing to get the library opened ... ," Glover stated in an interview with the L.A. Watts Times in advance of the conference.
Glover said that Clayton's death was "a tremendous shock to the entire family."
"He was doing fine," she said. "We all thought he was in good health."
Clayton was born on March 17, 1947, in Los Angeles to Mayme and Andrew Clayton. He attended area schools. After serving a stint in the Army during the Vietnam War, Clayton studied art at Los Angeles City College and the UCLA School of Fine Arts.
A successful artist in his own right, Clayton achieved local prominence for his series of historical lithographs of African-American figures, including portraits of Martin Luther King, Jr., which he developed for the 1982 Southern Christian Leadership Conference MLK dinner. Others featured in the series include: Dorothy Dandridge, George Washington Carver, and Josephine Baker.
Clayton's artwork could be found in many prominent private collections and featured in local art shows and exhibits.
During the 1980s, Clayton was tapped to coordinate numerous art shows and exhibits for local African-American churches and organizations.
As president of the Western States Black Research Center, Clayton worked closely with his mother to bring African-American history to the forefront. The Western States Black Resource Center hosted numerous Black History Month events, including the popular "Black Talkies on Parade," a film festival featuring films made by blacks for black audiences.
"Whoever we were honoring in the Black Talkies Film Festival, he did that portrait," said S. Pearl Sharp a longtime friend and colleague. "He also did his own fine arts. His next to last portrait was of Miriam Anderson singing."
In 1984, Clayton was selected by the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee to create a community "Walk of Fame" sidewalk project in Exposition Park.
A former counselor with the Pasadena Unified School District and retired art instructor, Clayton owned two art galleries — one on Crenshaw Boulevard and the other on 7th Avenue.
Clayton also created a line of African-American greeting cards, which were sold at the California African American Museum.
"In the art community, his work was very well respected. It's a major loss to the art community, to the library, to the archival community and to our community in general," Sharp said. "He really picked up the mantle that his mother left with the collection and made it his passion to get it available to the public."
Clayton is survived by two brothers, Renai and Lloyd Clayton; two nephews; and four grand nephews and nieces.
Service information: The Agape International is at Spiritual Center, 5700 Buckingham Parkway, Culver City. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum, 4130 Overland Ave., Culver City, California 90230-3734. For more information, call (310) 348-1250.
More info:
• The Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum (MCLM)
Chico C. Norwood is a writer for the L.A. Watts Times.
Images from The Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum.
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