Background
Vernon Dobson, the son of Review Spencer Dobson and Mistress Estelle Cook Dobson, was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland.
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Vernon Dobson
Edit Profilepastor civil rights activist Baptist minister
Education
He attended Booker T. Washington Middle School and graduated from Frederick Douglass Senior High School in 1941. He attended Howard University and earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree. He also studied at Harvard University.
Career
In 1958 Dobson was named assistant pastor of Union Baptist Church in Baltimore. He became the pastor of Union Baptist Church in 1963, and served in that role for 39 years. His predecessor, Review
Harvey Johnson, was present at the founding of the Niagara Movement and of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Dobson was twice elected the president of the Interdominational Ministerial Alliance in Baltimore.
In 1963 Dobson was one of the many community activists who attempted to integrate Gwynn Oak Amusement Park. Their demonstration against the park was organized by the Congress of Racial Equality.
In 1967 they sought the reinstatement of Joseph C. Howard, a prosecutor who had exposed Baltimore"s unequal treatment of rape victims based on their race. In 1968 Dobson founded the Union Baptist Church Head Start Program.
He was one of the founders of Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD) in 1977.
Review Harold Dobson (Vernon Dobson"s brother) was the first president of Baltimore"s branch of Opportunities Industrialization Center, (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation). Organisation of Islamic Cooperation was founded in Philadelphia by Review
Leon Sullivan. Dobson was the co-host of "Look at it This Way", a community affairs television show on WBAL-television in Baltimore.
Company-hosts included Samuel Thornton Daniels, Senior and Homer Favor.
Membership
Dobson was a member of the self-titled "Goon Squad," a group of Baltimore-based ministers and lawyers who advocated for civil rights.
