Henry McNeal Turner was a transformative African American leader in late 19th-century Georgia.
Born free in 1834, he overcame adversities to become a preacher, eventually serving as an army chaplain for the First Regiment of U.S. Colored Troops during the Civil War.
Post-war, Turner made strides in organizing the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Georgia and entered politics, aiding the formation of Georgia’s Republican Party.
Despite facing threats from the Ku Klux Klan and political slander, Turner rose to become the twelfth bishop of the AME Church, where he championed progressive practices including the ordination of a woman.
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He was also instrumental in advocating for the back-to-Africa emigration movement and bolstering the AME Church’s presence in Africa.
Turner passed away in 1915 and is commemorated in the Georgia State Capitol.
I have selected the best quotes from Henry McNeal Turner for you.
Best Henry McNeal Turner Quotes
My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together. ~ Henry McNeal Turner.
When I care about black liberation, it is because I care about white liberation. ~ Henry McNeal Turner.
We don’t want apartheid liberalized. We want it dismantled. You can’t improve something that is intrinsically evil. ~ Henry McNeal Turner.
I claim the right of a man. ~ Henry McNeal Turner.
I am not interested in picking up the crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights. ~ Henry McNeal Turner.
Freedom is indivisible. Whites can’t enjoy their separate freedoms. They spend too much time and resources defending those freedoms instead of enjoying them. ~ Henry McNeal Turner.
If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate… ~ Henry McNeal Turner.
The seeds of freedom … have now been scattered where despotism and tyranny ranked and ruled, will be watered by the enlivening dews of God’s clemency, till the reapers abolitionists shall shout the harvest home. ~ Henry McNeal Turner.
We shall be free only together, black and white. We shall survive only together, black and white. We can be human only together, black and white. ~ Henry McNeal Turner.
Inspiring Henry McNeal Turner Quotes
Every race of people since time began who have attempted to describe God by words or painting, or by carvings, have conveyed their idea that the God who made them and shaped their destinies was symbolized in themselves… ~ Henry McNeal Turner.
No one can say, who has any respect for the truth, that the United States is a civilized nation, especially if we take the daily papers and inspect them for a few moments and see the deeds of horror. ~ Henry McNeal Turner.
The Fourth of July-memorable in the history of our nation as the great day of independence to its countrymen-had no claim upon our sympathies. They made a flag and threw it to the heavens and bid it float forever; but every star in it was against us. ~ Henry McNeal Turner.
When the missionaries first came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, “Let us pray”. We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land. ~ Henry McNeal Turner.
I am a member of this body. Therefore, sir, I shall neither fawn nor cringe before any party, nor stoop to beg … I am here to demand my rights, and to hurl thunderbolts at the men who would dare to cross the threshold of my manhood. ~ Henry McNeal Turner.
For as long as whites enforce equality in the price of railroad tickets, and in every other particular, where we are required to pay and do, and be punished, some of us will believe that equality should be carried to a finish. ~ Henry McNeal Turner.
So these were the 15 top Henry McNeal Turner quotes and sayings.
If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Solanus Casey quotes and Michael Che quotes.
