Bishop Henry McNeal Turner
1834-1915
The Monument to Bishop Henry McNeal Turner, on Turner Blvd.,
just west of Martin Luther King Blvd. near the Visitors' Center
in downtown Savannah
The text of the monument to Bishop Henry McNeal Turner:
BISHOP HENRY MCNEAL TURNER
1834-1915
Henry McNeal Turner was the first Black Chaplain of
the U.S. Army. He was appointed by President Lincoln in 1863.
In 1865, he was assigned an agent of the Freedmen’s
Bureau in Georgia.
He served in the Georgia House of Representatives from
1868-1870; and at one time was postmaster of Macon.
Turner served as pastor of St. Phillips A.M.E. Church
in Savannah (now known at St. Philip Monumental A.M.E. Church)
from 1870-1874. St. Philip Monumental, the “Mother Church
of African Methodism in Georgia”, was organized on this site,
June 16, 1865.
Turner was elected Bishop of Georgia in 1880. Bishop
Turner was prominent in the back-to-Africa movement, leading two
expeditions from the Port of Savannah in the 1890’s.
He was a pioneer in the establishment and expansion of missionary
work in Africa.
Return to Reconstruction