Film: The Vernon Johns Story [1994]

Film
The Vernon Johns Story [1994]

An adaptation of the life and times of Dr. Vernon Johns, ⁣the Pastor who preceded Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as the head of the congregation at ⁣ Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. ⁣ In Stride Toward Freedom, his memoir of the Montgomery bus boycott, King described Johns as “a brilliant preacher with a creative mind” and “a fearless man, [who] never allowed an injustice to come to his attention without speaking out against it” (King, 38). King found an example in Johns, a preacher who was able to use his religious position in the community to challenge his congregation to be less provincial.