Vernon Johns

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Vernon Johns (April 22, 1892 - June 11, 1965) was an American minister, and inspirational civil rights leader. He worked tirelessly in the struggle for Civil Rights for African Americans since the 1920's. He was Martin Luther King, Jr.'s predecessor as pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, and a mentor of Ralph Abernathy, Wyatt Walker, and a host of others in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's circle. The father of the American Civil Rights Movement, he laid the foundation on which King and others would build. In 1948 Johns accepted the post of minister at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery Alabama.

Born in Darlington Heights, Virginia, in Prince Edward County. Johns served as pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church from 1947 to 1952.

He died of a heart attack in Washington, D. C. in 1965.

Contents 1 Movie 2 References 3 See also 4 External links

[edit] Movie

A television film was made in 1994 called Road to Freedom: The Vernon Johns Story, written by Leslie Lee and Kevin Arkadie, and based on an unpublished biography of Johns written by Henry W. Powell, of The Vernon Johns Society. The motion picture was directed by Kenneth Fink and starred James Earl Jones in the title role. Former NBA super-star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, an African-American history buff, was the film's co-executive producer.

[edit] References

• Branch, Taylor. Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988. ISBN 0-671-68742-5.

[edit] See also

• Ralph Luker, editor of the Vernon Johns Papers.

[edit] External links

• Vernon Johns biography at The Vernon Johns Society
• Dexter Avenue Baptist Church History: Rev. Vernon Johns 1947-1952 The Church's Nineteenth Pastor
• Bio @ Oberlin College
• The Vernon Johns Story at the Internet Movie Database
• Documenting Vernon Johns
• Vernon Johns at Find-A-Grave
• Johns the Baptist