ATLANTA (AP) — A key aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. says she’s deeply saddened by the hate crimes that are terrorizing people across America.

Xernona Clayton has been working for racial equality and harmony since the civil rights movement began, which is why she tells The Associated Press that she can’t sit quietly in the face of racial terror.

King recruited Clayton to bring attention to the movement in the 1960s. She called on celebrity friends to raise bail money and campaigned to desegregate Atlanta’s hospitals.

She later became the first Black TV host in the South. She says that if we treat people right, skin color won’t matter.