Vernon Johns was the immediate predecessor to Martin Luther King as senior pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, serving from 1947 to 1952.
Reverend Dr. Vernon Johns was a very influential "negro" minister in the earliest days of the N.A.A.C.P. and other African-American groups fighting for civil rights. Johns is considered by many to be the the father of the 20th Century civil rights movement.
ON SCREEN: "Before the civil rights movement could begin, it would take the actions of a few brave souls to set that movement into motion.
This is a story of one of them."
The story was based on an unpublished biography by Henry W. Powell of The Vernon Johns Society.