Respect Yourself: The Resistance Rhetoric of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner

• In Event: Race, Activism, and Social Movements from the 18th century to the 20th century

Abstract

In January of 1880, Henry McNeal Turner served as the publications director of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Five months later at the church’s General Conference on May 14, he became Bishop Henry McNeal Turner. Up to that point, Turner by all accounts had a productive career. He created his public persona as a regular correspondent for the AME organ, the Christian Recorder and served as the first African American chaplain in the Armed Forces. Turner served on Georgia’s Constitutional Convention (1867), elected to the House of Representatives (1868), became Customs Inspector and Postmaster General in Macon (1869) won reelection to the State House (1870), served as pastor of St. Philip AME Church in Savannah (1872-1876), and became Publications Manager for the AME church (1876-1880).
However, as Reconstruction gave way to the post-reconstruction realities for African Americans, Turner’s election to bishop gave him a larger platform to share his views. In this presentation, I examine Turner’s rhetoric during a time when whites begin to nullify the gains African American made during reconstruction. In addition, I argue that during this time, Turner not only help shape the Black Rhetorical Tradition—focused on Civil Rights, freedom, justice and equality for all people, but he also developed a type of resistance rhetoric that helped black people to survive the onslaught of racist policies.

Author

• Andre E. Johnson, University of Memphis