Thomas Strickland Turner Sr. was born May 16, 1925 to Edward Daniel Turner and Maude Butler Turner. His struggles against racial discrimination and segregation began when he was a child. He and four of his eight siblings, Constance, Barbara, Leroy and Francis were among the African American students who were barred from attending the New Easttown Elementary School in Pennsylvania during 1932 because of their color. The discriminatory practices to institute segregation erupted into a fight for equal education for all students. Those involved in the struggle against segregation included local African American parents, the NAACP and Philadelphia lawyer, Raymond Pace Alexander. At that time, Mr.
Turner’s uncle Oscar Burwell Cobb was the president of the Main Line branch of the NAACP. They won the battle and Black children were granted the right to enter and attend the new Easttown School.
Dr. Diane D. Turner is Curator of the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection, Temple University Libraries. Dr. Turner holds three Temple University degrees and her areas of specialization and research include Pennsylvania and Philadelphia History, African American Labor, Cultural and Social History, Black Music, Jazz History in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Images of Blacks in Film: Independent Black Filmmakers and Africana Cinema, Oral History and Public History. She is the author of My Name is Oney Judge (2010), her first children’s book, and Feeding the Soul: Black Music, Black Thought (2011). She has published several articles in scholarly journals and biography called Our Grand Pop is a Montford Point Marine. She is president of the Montford Point Marines Association, Philadelphia Chapter, Ladies Auxiliary. Dr. Turner is currently working on a history of jazz in Philadelphia.
