Benjamin Sterling Turner

Congressman Benjamin Turner, the first Black representative from Alabama, served in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 1871 to March 1873 (42nd Congress). While enslaved, Turner managed a hotel and stable and, by 1870, had accumulated enough wealth to establish a school for Black children. Turner sponsored a bill requiring the federal government to purchase southern land and sell tracts to freedmen. As a member of the Invalid Pensions Committee, he helped pass two bills authorizing payments for Civil War veterans.