Rev. Dr. Robert Richard Allen Turner is the pastor of Historic Vernon A.M.E. Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which has the only edifice which survived the 1921 Race Massacre on Greenwood. Additionally, Dr. Turner is now the Academic Dean for Jackson Theological Seminary in Little Rock Arkansas. He sits on the National African American Reparations Commission, Board of Trustees for the American Village, the 1921 Race Massacre Centennial Commission, Tulsa Mass Graves Oversight Commission, President of the Historic Greenwood Main Street District, the Board of Directors for the Grit for Democracy, Terence Crutcher Foundation, North Tulsa Task Force, Demanding a Just Tulsa, and the Advisory Board of the Blackburn Institute of the University of Alabama and the chairperson of the board for the Turner Ministry Association 501(c)3.

Dr. Turner has been featured on CBS’s 60 Minutes and Evening News, ABC, BBC, MSNBC (Chuck Todd, and Andrea Mitchell’s show) CNN, Good Morning America3 (twice), NPR Here and Now (twice) and the Euronews, Washington Post (as an op-ed writer and interviewee), LA Times, and New York Times, along with Politico, and several other national and international publications and news outlets.

Dr. Turner travels the country as a guest lecturer, life coach, DEI trainer, presenter, facilitator and motivational speaker. Since coming to Tulsa he has received several awards such as the Hometown Hero from the Modern Woodmen, Nat Turner Award for divine leadership on restorative justice from the African Ancestral Society, Trailblazer Award from North Tulsa Educational Task Force, Terence Crutcher Foundation Award for commitment to criminal justice reform , lastly he was given the distinction of being named Tulsan of the Year for 2019 by the Tulsa World the cities largest news publication. His areas of focus are racism, community development, grassroots organizing, non-profit grant program management, faith-based community involvement, civic engagement, mentorship, deliberative forums, and employee relations.

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