(BALTIMORE — November 26, 2025) — Mark your calendars! BMORENews.com’s 23rd Anniversary Benefit is set for Thursday, December 4, 2025, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Douglass-Myers Maritime Museum in Baltimore. RSVP today at bmorenews23.eventbrite.com.
A hallmark of Baltimore’s Black business and media community, the annual celebration spotlights the Joe Manns Black Wall Street Awards, honoring individuals whose leadership and service uplift their industries and communities. Since 2011, BMORENews and its partners have recognized more than 3,000 honorees across nine U.S. cities for their contributions to Black entrepreneurship and economic empowerment.
Honorees include Rev. Dr. Robert Richard Allen Turner.
Rev. Dr. Robert Richard Allen Turner is a millennial pastor, activist, and author committed to “speaking truth to power” and following the call of Isaiah 61 to “preach good tidings to the poor, heal the brokenhearted, and proclaim liberty to the captives.”
Currently serving as pastor of Empowerment Temple in Baltimore, Dr. Turner is the author of Creating a Culture of Repair, which features the world’s longest list of reparatory ideas and was nominated as a finalist for the Foreword Indie Award. His work has been submitted to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Dr. Turner serves on the National African American Reparations Commission, as a Commissioner of Reinvestment and Reparations for the City of Baltimore, and on advisory boards for the Blackburn Institute at the University of Alabama, the Baltimore Children and Youth Fund, Associated Black Charities, and the Baltimore Workforce Development Board.
His advocacy has earned national and international media attention, including features on CBS’s 60 Minutes and Evening News, ABC, BBC, MSNBC (Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell), CNN, Good Morning America, NPR’s Here and Now, along with op-eds and interviews in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and Politico.
Education and Early Leadership
Dr. Turner graduated with honors from the Interdenominational Theological Center’s Turner Seminary in Atlanta with a Master of Divinity and earned his Doctor of Ministry from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. In his dissertation, he coined the phrase “Prophetic Civic Engagement,” highlighting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a model of this concept.
A cum laude graduate from the Honors Program at the University of Alabama, he majored in Political Science with a minor in Spanish. Rev. Turner was the first Black Chief of Staff for the Student Government Association at the University of Alabama and was honored as the 2004 Most Outstanding Male Student. He helped lead a movement that caused the university to recognize two enslaved individuals, Jack and Boysie, who were buried on campus.
He is a 1999 graduate of Alabama Boys State, a 2013 graduate of Leadership Mobile, and a lifetime member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., currently serving with the Baltimore Alumni chapter.
Ministry and Mission Work
After withdrawing from law school in 2005 to answer his calling, Rev. Turner served as co-team leader on a mission trip to Kenya, where his team brought over 200 souls to Christ. Following Hurricane Katrina, he traveled to New Orleans to evangelize and offer assistance. Most recently, he took a mission trip to Egypt, visiting holy sites and learning spiritual disciplines from monks.
Pastoral Leadership and Community Impact
At Empowerment Temple, Dr. Turner has renovated the church office area, commissioned a mural, added a chapel and gym, enlarged the pulpit area, and leads monthly walks from Baltimore to the White House for reparations (#40milesfor40acres). He oversees monthly food giveaways, evangelistic outreach, and faith-based political discussions.
Previously, as pastor of Vernon AME Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Dr. Turner led the fight for justice for victims of the 1921 Race Massacre, advocating for burial site excavations and reparations. During COVID-19, he launched a food ministry that served over 500,000 meals. Under his leadership, Vernon AME completed over $1 million in improvements, including the restoration of stained-glass windows, a new roof, prayer rooms, and masonry work. The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and he increased membership by 95% and finances by over 100%.
He sat on the 1921 Race Massacre Centennial Commission, Tulsa Mass Graves Oversight Commission, and served as the founding President of the Historic Greenwood Main Street District. His four years in Tulsa earned him numerous honors, including Tulsan of the Year (Tulsa World), Hometown Hero (Modern Woodmen), the Nat Turner Award, Dan Allen Social Justice Award, and Trailblazer Award (Tulsa Public Schools).
Professional Experience
Dr. Turner formerly served as a UniServ Director for the Alabama Education Association, representing over 1,800 members across four counties and 51 work sites. He was a regular columnist for the Press-Register and AL.com, and has interned for U.S. Senator Richard Shelby, former Congressman Artur Davis, Alabama Supreme Court Justice Harold See, and Secretary of State Jim Bennett.
He has conducted research for the Kettering Foundation and the David Mathews Center for Civic Life, co-authoring the 2015 Alabama Civic Health Index. Dr. Turner served as an adjunct professor of Homiletics at Jarvis Christian College, Chief Academic Officer at Jackson Theological Seminary, and Project Director for Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation in Selma, Alabama, overseeing a $3 million Kellogg Foundation grant.
Personal Life
Dr. Turner has been married to Shere Turner for over 19 years. They have two sons: Robert Richard Allen Turner II (Deuce), 14, and Malcolm Robert Martin Turner (Bobby), 13. In his free time, he enjoys reading, exercising, and spending time with family and friends.
Dr. Turner travels the country as a guest lecturer, human rights activist, life coach, racial equity consultant, presenter, facilitator, and motivational speaker, focusing on racism, community development, grassroots organizing, faith-based involvement, civic engagement, and employee relations.
Join us on December 4th to honor Rev. Dr. Robert Richard Allen Turner at BMORENews’ 23rd Anniversary Benefit. RSVP at bmorenews23.eventbrite.com
