WHO WAS VERNON
JOHNS?
The Rev. Vernon Johns was the father
of the civil rights movement. He was the predecessor of Martin Luther King,
Jr. at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. He was virtually
the sole voice in the South speaking out consistently and uncompromisingly
against the "separate but equal" system of segregation.
Johns was a prophet who was greatly ignored by his contemporaries, who never
knew what Johns was going to say -- hell, he may even have told the truth;
and that is sin enough for most people, even those who say they support civil
rights.