Dr. Vernon Johns was the 19th pastor of the Church, serving from 1947 to 1952.

In his perennial militancy in speech, action, and his pen for racial equality for all men, Rev. Johns rocked the Montgomery community with far-reaching consequences elsewhere in this great land of ours.

Through his teachings and his precepts, he aroused not only the Dexter family but hundreds of citizens of Montgomery to the changes that had taken place and to those which were still taking place in the relationships of mankind and emphasized the concept of human fellowship that would know no narrow racial, religious, of national boundaries. He kindled a strong flame of thoughts about the importance that every individual should have in the affairs of the world. And this importance would have implications for every phase of human existence, the political, the industrial, and the intellectual; but most important of all, it would establish a new basis for the way in which the peoples of the world will deal with each other. Ablaze of self-esteem was kindled in the community by Dr. Johns but awaited the necessary fuel to start the conflagration.