Turner, Henry McNeal
1834-1915 · Contribution: 1880-1898
AME bishop; U.S. Army chaplain; emigrationist
First Southern bishop of the AME Church; first Black U.S. Army chaplain; leading late 19th-century advocate of Black emigration to Africa and Pan-African religious expansion

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Quick facts
- Born
- 1834, Newberry County, South Carolina
- Active since
- 1880
- Category
- Religious & Spiritual Leadership
- Best known for
- First Southern AME bishop and leading advocate of Black emigration to Africa
Impact on the world
Turner fused ministry, military service, and Pan-African vision, building the AME Church across the South and abroad while arguing, against contemporaries like Daniel Payne, that Black Americans would never find justice in the United States.
Sources
- BlackPast.org
1 more sources and references are available to members.
Related visionaries
Payne, Daniel Alexander
1811-1893
First African American president of a college in the United States; transformed the AME Church's ministry into a formally educated clergy and helped found Wilberforce University
Allen, Richard
1760-1831
Founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first independent Black religious denomination in the United States; became its first bishop
Crummell, Alexander
1819-1898
Became one of the first Black Americans ordained an Episcopal priest, founded St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. — the first independent Black Episcopal congregation in the city — and in 1897 co-founded the American Negro Academy, the first major organization supporting Black scholarship in America
Garvey, Marcus Mosiah
1887-1940
Developed a theology of a Black God and co-founded the African Orthodox Church; fused Christian religious practice with Black nationalist organizing in the largest Black mass movement in American history