Henry McNeal Turner (1834-1915), was an African American leader and the 12 elected and consecrated bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, argued for African American emigration to Africa. Henry McNeal Turner's life was guided by a faith in the capabilities of himself and his people. He grew up in Abbeville, South Carolina. He was born free, and raised by his mother and maternal grandmother. Legend had it that his paternal grandfather was an African prince.
As a young boy, Turner dreamed that millions of people would look to him as a teacher, and he was determined to act on that vision. But first, he had to learn to read and write; in South Carolina, teaching blacks to do either was forbidden. Turner was raised in the heart of the Confederacy, where it was illegal for blacks to learn to read and write. His mother would often try to arrange lessons for him, but each time she would found out about the sessions, it was too late and the lessons ended. Finally, an elderly slave taught him to sound out words, and Turner wrote that an angel would come to him in his dreams and teach him the connection between sounds and the alphabet. Because Turner was unable to go to school he was forced to work in local cotton fields but later ran away and found a job as sweeper for Abbeville law office, around 1849. His education progressed when the lawyers at a firm tested his memory by teaching him science. Within four years, he had learned enough to become a licensed preacher.
He was licensed to preach in 1853. He was the first black man to hold the position of Chaplain in the U.S. Army. Turner was active in Georgia state politics, and he served briefly in the Georgia State Legislature. He married Eliza Ann Preacher of Columbia, South Carolina, in 1856. The couple moved to Baltimore and eventually had 14 children, but only two sons survived.
Turner joined the African Methodist Episcopalian church in 1858, at 24, because he heard that black men could become bishops in the A.M.E church. He was taken under wing by Bishop Daniel Payne and pastured at two of his churches. Turner joined the lobbying effort to convince President Lincoln to enlist freedmen in the Union Army. In 1863, Lincoln acceded, and Turner became the first black chaplain.
After the war, Turner walked back to Georgia, and began organizing AME churches there. By some counts, he founded over one hundred churches. Turner became one of the AME church's hardest working missionaries. He sought to save the souls of the freedmen and to expand their minds. Missionaries from various denominations competed with one another for church membership, and joining a church became one of the ways in which a freedman claimed an identity. Turner loosened the strict rules requiring educated ministers, allowed congregants to sing their slave spirituals during worship, and dared the Klu Klux Klan to try and stop him. At the same time, he worked with white Republicans, trying to develop a multiracial coalition which would govern the South He helped organize the Georgia Republican Party. In 1868, he was elected state representative, but he and 14 other black representatives were expelled from the Georgia legislature after whites combined in an 82-83 vote.
That rejection made Turner turn his back on the American political process. He turned his attention instead to developing the political potential of the black church.
Turner served as a Presiding Elder in Georgia. He was elected the Business Manager of the Publication Department. He founded the Southern Christian Recorder, the Voice of Missions and the Women’s Christian Recorder. In 1880, Turner rode a wave of populist popularity to become the first southern bishop elected in the AME Church at the General Conference in St. Louis, Missouri. As Bishop, Turner dedicated himself to building a denomination. The AME Church had begun to lose ground to the fast-growing Baptist denomination, which allowed greater freedom of expression during service. Turner wrote a hymnal which included adaptations of many "slave ditties," as Bishop Payne called them. He worked to give southern congregations a greater voice among the AME hierarchy, which, dominated as it was by Northerners, tended to look down on their southern brethren. And he gave women a greater role in the denomination. He even ordained a woman as deacon, but that move was condemned so loudly that he rescinded it and never spoke about it again - the one subject on which he was silenced. He would also prove to be the most controversial. He provoked white racists in print, and advocated a wholesale move of blacks back to Africa "to achieve our dignity and manhood." He ordained a woman, Sarah Ann Hughes, as a deacon in the church. During his tenure, he presided over the 8th, 5th, 1st, 12th, 6th and 7th Districts. He built alliances with Baptists. At the first Black Baptist convention, he gave the speech for which he would be forever known: "We have every right to believe that God is a Negro," he stated, proclaiming that a people needed to see their reflection in their deity.
Georgian Democrats went to great lengths to discredit Turner's leadership and character. He was charged with carrying counterfeit money - the charges were thrown out in federal court - but, more damaging were accusations of extramarital affairs. The scandal destroyed his friendship with Bishop Daniel Payne and damaged his reputation, particularly among women in the AME Church, who formed the bedrock of the organization.
As for his personal life, Turner married four times, Turner survived three wives and all but two of his children. His final marriage at 73 to his secretary evoked a storm of criticism and attempts were made to remove him from office. Turner believed that Emancipation was the first Exodus for African-Americans and leaving the South would be the second. While many in the black community shared Turner's views on the limits of freedom in the South, most chose to remain in the United States instead of migrating to Africa. Turner's insistence on linking missionary work in Africa with mass emigration to the continent made him a divisive figure in the AME Church. At the same time, his four trips to Africa showed him the dignity of a people uncured. In 1895, speaking before the first meeting of the National Baptist Convention, Turner declared that African-Americans should see God as a Negro.

The previous information was taken from the following web pages
Henry McNeal Turner Biography - Profile of Henry McNeal Turner Biographies: http://www.bookrags.com/biography/henry-mcneal-turner/
Henry McNeal Turner, 1834-1915: http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/turneral/bio.html
This Far by Faith . Henry McNeal Turner PBS: http://www.pbs.org/thisfarbyfaith/people/henry_mcneal_turner.html
Henry M. Turner: http://www.amecnet.org/turner.htm
Henry McNeal Turner Biography: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAturnerHM.htm