Lorenzo Dow Turner

Lorenzo Dow Turner(August 21, 1890 – February 10, 1972) was an African-Americanacademicandlinguistwho did seminal research on theGullah languageof theLow Countryof coastalSouth CarolinaandGeorgia.His studies included recordings of Gullah speakers in the 1930s. As head of the English departments atHoward UniversityandFisk Universityfor a combined total of nearly 30 years, he strongly influenced their programs. He created theAfrican Studiescurriculum at Fisk, was chair of the African Studies Program atRoosevelt University,and in the early 1960s, cofounded a training program forPeace Corpsvolunteers going to Africa.

Early life

Born inElizabeth City, North Carolina,on October 21, 1890, Turner was the youngest of four sons of Rooks Turner and Elizabeth Freeman. His father completed his master's degree atHoward University,although he had not begun first grade until he was twenty-one years old. His mother gained the education allowed to black women at the time (six years). Two of Turner's brothers earned degrees in medicine and law. Turner's family's strong emphasis on education inspired him and helped him achieve academic success.

Academic career

Turner earned a bachelor's degree from Howard University in 1914 and later as master's degree from Harvard and a Ph.D. in English literature from theUniversity of Chicago.He taught at Howard University from 1917 to 1928, and during his last eight years, he served as Head of the English Department. After leaving Howard, he founded the WashingtonSunnewspaper, which closed after one year. He also taught Zora Neale Hurston when she was a student at Howard University. Hurston describes him as a major influence on her. She also adds that: "He was tall, lean, with a head of wavy black hair above his thin,aesthetic, tan-colored face. He was a Harvard man and knew his subject. His delivery was soft and restrained. The fact that he looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties at most made the girls conscious of shiny noses before they entered his classroom".

From 1929 to 1946 Turner served as Head of the English Department atFisk University.There he designed the curriculum for the African Studies Program.

In 1946, he began teaching atRoosevelt UniversityinChicago,where he was Chairman of the African Studies Program. In the early 1960s, he cofounded thePeace Corpstraining program to prepare young volunteers for service inAfrica.Turner retired from Roosevelt in 1967. Turner remained professor emeritus at Roosevelt until his death at age 77 in 1972. His papers are held in theAnacostia Community Museumin Washington, DC.

Gullah research

Lorenzo Dow Turner is best remembered as the father of Gullah studies. His interest in theGullah peoplebegan in 1929 when he first heardGullah speakerswhile teaching a summer class atSouth Carolina State College(now University). Although established scholars then viewed Gullah speech as a form of substandard English, Turner sensed that Gullah was strongly influenced by African languages. He set out to study the language. For the next 20 years, he made trips to the Gullah region in coastal South Carolina and Georgia, interviewing Gullahs (often in isolated locations) and making detailed notes on their language. He also made recordings in the 1930s of Gullah speakers talking about their culture, folk stories and other aspects of life.

As part of his studies, Turner traveled to several locations in Africa, specificallySierra Leone,to learn about the development ofCreolelanguages, as well as toLouisianaandBrazil,to study Creole andPortuguese,respectively. He did research atUniversity of London School of Oriental and African Studieson various African language systems. He wanted to be able to provide context for the obvious "Africanisms"he discovered in hisSea Islandsresearch. "Such depth and breadth allowed Turner to locate Gullah culture and language within the broader complexities of the African diaspora in the New World,... firmly outside the reductionist theoretical model of cultural assimilation."

When Turner finally published his classic workAfricanisms in the Gullah Dialectin 1949, he made an immediate impact on established academic thinking. His study of the origin, development and structure of Gullah was so convincing that scholars quickly accepted his thesis that Gullah is strongly influenced by African languages. He showed the continuity of language and culture across thediaspora.Many scholars have followed Turner over the years in researching the African roots of Gullah language and culture. He created a new field of study by his work and an appreciation for a unique element of African-American culture.

Turner was strongly influenced by the American linguistic movement, which he joined at its inception. Through his Gullah research, he gave shape to several academic specialties: Gullah studies,dialect geographyandcreole linguistics,as well as being an important predecessor to the field ofAfrican American studies,which developed in the 1960s and ′70s.

Turner's pioneering work, which academics credit for introducing African-American studies to U.S. curricula, was the subject of "Word, Shout, Song: Lorenzo Dow Turner Connecting Communities Through Language" at Smithsonian's Anacostia Community Museum in July, 2016. Exhibit curator Alcione Amos said the Washington, D.C., museum acquired many of Turner's original notes, pictures and recordings from his widow, Lois Turner Williams, in 2003.

Turner died of heart failure atMichael Reese Hospitalin Chicago, Illinois, on February 10, 1972.

Legacy and honors

• A junior high school in Chicago, the Turner Drew Language Academy, was dedicated to him (and toCharles Drew,an African-American scientist who invented a technique for storing blood).

Sources

• Wade-Lewis, Margaret (1988).Lorenzo Dow Turner: First African-American Linguist.Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Temple University, Institute of African and African-American Affairs, Department of African-American Studies.
• Wade-Lewis, Margaret (2007).Lorenzo Dow Turner: Father of Gullah Studies.Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press.ISBN978-1-57003-628-6.

Further reading

• Amos, Alcione M. (2011). "Lorenzo Dow Turner: Connecting Communities Through Language".The Black Scholar.41(1): 4–15.doi:10.5816/blackscholar.41.1.0004.S2CID142310396.
• Wade-Lewis, Margaret (Spring 1990)."The Contribution of Lorenzo Dow Turner to African Linguistics".Studies in Linguistic Sciences.20(1): 189–204.

External links

• Biographical Information
• Turner's Research Leads to a Modern Discovery
• Text of "Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect"