The celebration of his extraordinary life will be livestreamed Monday
by Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service
The Rev. Dr. Otis Turner
LOUISVILLE — The Rev. Dr. Otis Turner, a Presbyterian pastor and scholar who was a longtime advocate for racial and social justice, died Aug. 2 in Jacksonville, Florida.
His funeral service is set for noon Eastern Time on Monday at Sardis Missionary Baptist Church in Dawson, Georgia. It will be livestreamed here.
According to his obituary, Turner was the first Black person to enroll at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, in 1965, and was the first Black person to received a doctoral degree from Emory.
Turner was born in Dawson, Georgia, on Sept. 12, 1940, to Plumpton and Edna Turner. He and siblings were raised on the family farm. He grew up and married Gloria Silver, and to that union a son was born. In 2001, he married Patsy Ford and gained two bonus sons.
His early education was in a one-room, two-teacher school nestled in woods adjacent to a railroad track and surrounded by large farm plantations. The daily four-mile walk to and from school was hard on his small, fragile frame, but his temporary struggle was worth what his mother and his teachers developed in him: a passion for learning that became the driving force in his life.
As a youngster, Turner aspired to become a medical doctor, but his life experiences led him to become a doctor of another kind. After graduating from high school, he attended Albany State University in Albany, Georgia. He was there when the civil rights movement came to Albany, and he found himself in the middle of the struggle for racial justice. He met the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders. His encounter with King had a lasting impression on him, and King’s philosophy became an influential force in his life. Turner joined the NAACP even though it was risky for him to do so.
His degree in hand, Turner applied for a teaching position in Cuthbert, Georgia. During the interview, he was asked two questions now prohibited under employment and civil rights laws: are you a member of the NAACP, and were you involved in student protests and marches at Albany State University? Knowing his answer would determine whether he got a much-needed job, Turner told the interviewers what they wanted to hear, and he was hired.
He left teaching after a year to join the Peace Corps, where he served two years as a biology instructor at the Mindanao Institute of Technology in the Philippines. While serving there, Turner heard the call to the ministry.
He then entered Emory University’s School of Theology, where his doctoral dissertation, “Toward an Ethic of Black Liberation based on the Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Stokely Carmichael’s Concept of Black Power,” was published in 1974. While at Emory, Turner was involved in campus ministry and was a founding member of the Black Student Alliance. He was associate director of Emory’s Upward Bound Program and associate editor of the Emory Wheel. He was among the organizers for the first Martin Luther King Celebration at Emory University.
He joined the United Presbyterian Church while at Emory and was subsequently ordained.
He joined the faculty at Wofford College in 1972, where he served as an assistant professor of religion, and in 1977 was dean of students at the South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind.
The following year, he accepted a call to join the national staff of the Presbyterian Church in the United States as director of the Council on Church and Race. It was here that his intellectual gifts and vision of social justice merged and gave rise to a vibrant 25-year ministry of social activism.
Turner was the driving force behind the research and development of the policy document Facing Racism: A Vision of the Beloved Community, which was adopted by the 211th General Assembly (1999). The document served as a roadmap for racial justice ministry in the PC(USA) and a foundation for its antiracism ministry. Turner organized the denomination’s antiracism program and provided antiracism training for hundreds of congregations, mid councils and Presbyterian Women. All staff at the national office now take antiracism training.
Among Turner’s more than 30 awards are the Edler G. Hawkins Award and the Lawrence Bottoms Award. Turner was a member of the Albany State University Alumni Hall of Fame and was named a Kentucky Colonel, the highest title of honor bestowed by the Governor of Kentucky.
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, housed in the New York City Public Library, made all Turner’s papers part of its historic collection.
Turner spoke and lectured on racial justice issues at churches, mid councils, academic institutions and elsewhere both nationally and internationally. The Ducree-Turner Scholarship, named for Turner and Edward Ducree, was established at the Candler School of Theology to support students who have discerned a call to serve within historically Black denominational traditions.
Turner retired in 2003 and last year was invited to return to Wofford College to be recognized for the work he did during his five years there. The annual faculty and staff diversity inclusion award has been renamed in his honor.
Turner was preceded in death by his parents; two sisters, Vera Williams and Natalia Carter; and eight brothers, Eddie Turner, Johnny Turner, Ernest Turner, Eddie Jones, Sammy Lee Clark, Jimmy Lee Clark, David Clark and Willie D. Williams.
Precious memories will linger on in the hearts and minds of those who loved him: his devoted wife of 23 years, Dr. Patsy Turner; his son, Leotis Turner; his two bonus sons, Melvin (Kym) Simms and Keith Simms; grandchildren, Catherine Turner, Lehana Turner, Melvin Simms, Jr., Helena (Lucas) Brown, Aiden Simms, and Isabelle Simms; his brothers, Joe Louis (Ann) Jones, Frances Britt Crawford, and Garry Holman; his sisters, Victoria Holman and Gloria Clark; and a host of nieces, nephews, other relatives, and friends.
The Rev. Joe Rigsby will officiate the service on Monday. Interment will be at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Dawson, Georgia.
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