Reverend Vernon Nathaniel Dobson was born October 29, 1923, into a committed, philosophical family headed by his father, the Reverend Spencer Dobson.
From 1946 to 1949, Dobson attended Howard University where he came under the tutelage of Dr. Mordecai Johnson, Dr. Benjamin Mays, Reverend Howard Thurman, Ralph Bunche, William Leo Hansberry, Thurgood Marshall and others. He received his B.D. in 1949 and went on to Harvard University to pursue graduate studies. He joined the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance in 1953 and was twice named president.
Dobson was installed as pastor of Union Baptist Church in 1967, and he organized buses for the March On Washington and founded the Food Bank of Maryland. With Parren Mitchell, Joseph Howard, Marion Bascomb, Harold Dobson and others, he founded the “Goon Squad” to combat racial segregation in Baltimore. In 1968, Dobson established a grassroots organization, BUILD (Baltimoreans United In Leadership Development) with Monsignor Clare and Reverend Wendell Phillips.