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Lion

BY KATHLEEN O'TOOLE

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Kathleen O'Toole, Poet and Past Lead Organizer, BUILD
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Rev Vernon Dobson, Founder, BUILD, Baltimore, MD

In memoriam, Rev. Vernon Dobson, 1923-2013

Just this week a well-informed citizen  

in Washington, DC asked; “What happened 

to Baltimore?” Meaning its economy, meaning 

its port and politics, meaning its black community.

As always, I dip into the inherited memory, 

shared analysis, the grief turned to anger ─ what

we all learned at the Vernon Dobson school

of public life. Today he “went home to the Lord”,

but the Lord was always at home at his right hand:

in the coffee house, in the Laundromat, the gym

jammed into the heart of Union Baptist Church.

On marble-stooped, history-steeped Druid Hill 

Avenue (think Thurgood Marshall, think Juanita,

Parren Mitchell, and the doctors, lawyers and school

principals whose ghosts linger into harsher times),

the least of these ─ Bobby Lee washing cars with his

well-used soapy water,  were welcomed here, 

and memorable. For those of us who’d missed 

The Goon Squad, Reverend Dobson and crew, 

in their early firebrand years, there was his fierce

“If-they-dare-threaten. ..touch-a-hair-on-your-heads”

defense of low-wage workers daring to question 

their poverty, in the hopes of climbing Jacob’s ladder 

to a living wage.

A lion’s ferocity

protecting its young, and he could roar, 

but with laughter, recounting the antics of 

an irreverent caper, political prank or the blunder

of some over-inflated public ego. Almost never

more than one levered window away 

from the sidewalk, that street-level stream 

of life, chaotic and dear ─ the sidewalk 

of our first encounter in the snow.

Him shoveling, in army jacket and boots.

I thought: the custodian. We would soon laugh,

as he suited up to negotiate for hundreds 

of new homes in the prophet Nehemiah’s

name. He used to rent a trolley and bullhorns

to turn out the vote. I never got to hear

his take on Obama’s election ─ high hopes

or disappointment.  Hard to imagine Rev’s

voice silenced, this void.  His dead-on wisdom 

and barbershop yarns, booming laughter still

reverberate.  To us the hand-off: anthems,

spirituals in which we heard his baritone

loud and clear::   Guide our feet … for we, 

for sure …don’t want to run this race in vain.


- Kathleen O’Toole, former lead organizer, BUILD

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  • HOME
    • Newsmakers Archives >
      • NEWS Jul-Dec2018
  • BOOKS
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    • Cutting Edge
    • Gold Standard
  • Faith
    • Under Siege
    • Money
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  • Blog
    • Notes on Organizing
    • DF Journal
    • Just Art
  • Contact