- Vernon Johns
Vernon Johns (
April 22 ,1892 –June 11 ,1965 ) was an American minister andcivil rights leader who was active in the struggle for civil rights forAfrican Americans from the 1920s.He is considered the father of the American Civil Rights Movement, having laid the foundation on which
Martin Luther King, Jr. and others would build. He was Dr. King's predecessor aspastor atDexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery,Alabama from 1947 to 1952, and a mentor ofRalph Abernathy ,Wyatt Walker , and many others in theSouthern Christian Leadership Conference .Johns was born in Darlington Heights, Prince Edward County,
Virginia . He died of aheart attack inWashington, D.C. at age 73.David Anderson Elementary School in Petersburg, VA was renamed 'Vernon Johns Middle School' several years ago. In 2009 it will become the junior high school for the city school system.Movie
A
television film was made in 1994 called "Road to Freedom: The Vernon Johns Story", written by Leslie Lee and Kevin Arkadie, based on an unpublished biography by Henry W. Powell of The Vernon Johns Society. The motion picture was directed by Kenneth Fink and starsJames Earl Jones in the title role. FormerNBA superstarKareem Abdul-Jabbar , anAfrican-American history historian, was the film's co-executive producer.References
* Branch, Taylor. "Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–63". New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988. ISBN 0671687425
ee also
*
Ralph Luker , editor of the Vernon Johns PapersExternal links
* [http://www.vernonjohns.org/tcal001/vjtofc.html Vernon Johns biography at The Vernon Johns Society]
* [http://www.dexterkingmemorial.org/history_vernonjohns.cfm Dexter Avenue Baptist Church History: Rev. Vernon Johns 1947-1952 The Church's Nineteenth Pastor]
* [http://www.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/BlackHistoryMonth/Vernon%20Johns/JohnsBioSketch.html Bio @ Oberlin College]
*
* [http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/16626.html Documenting Vernon Johns]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7219193 Vernon Johns at Find-A-Grave]
* [http://www.ralphluker.com/vjohns/baptist.html Johns the Baptist]
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