W. Burghardt Turner

A 1960s-era civil rights leader, founder of Brookhaven branch of NAACP and maybe first African-American teacher (1960s) in the PM district, W. Burghardt Turner graduated cum laude in 1939 from Kentucky State College, where majored in history and sociology. After serving in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1946, Turner returned to school to complete his master’s in history at Columbia, but left doctoral school just shy of earning his Ph.D. to help support his family. Employment opportunities were scarce due to racial discrimination, but he eventually found a position as a elementary school teacher, and later as a professor at State University of New York at Stony Brook where Turner introduced courses in African-American history and chaired the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, and  went on to receive a honorary doctorate from Stony Brook.  W. Burghardt Turner passed away January 11, 2009 at the age of 93