Dr. Vernon Johns (April 22, 1892 – June 11, 1965) was an American minister based in the South and a pioneer in the civil rights movement.
He was succeeded there by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Johns was widely known in the black community across the South for his profound scholarship in the classics, his intellect, and his highly controversial and outspoken sermons on race relations, which were ahead of his time.
After killing another white man who tried to rape her, Price was convicted and served prison time.
[3] While at Oberlin, Johns was highly respected by both his classmates and the faculty; he was chosen to give the annual student oration.
[4] His wife's connection to ASU enabled her to influence Dexter Avenue Baptist Church to hire Johns as pastor in October 1948.
[1]: 6–7 On one occasion, he paid his fare on a bus in Montgomery, and was directed to the back in the custom of segregated seating.
[5] He sometimes ruffled feathers among his upper- and middle-class congregation by selling his farm produce outside the church building.
This was one of five cases that was combined in the Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka suit that reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
It was directed by Kenneth Fink and stars James Earl Jones in the title role.