Byron Gunner (1857–1922) was an American minister, educator, newspaper publisher, and civil rights activist.

[4] He worked as a teacher in Paris, Texas, from 1880 until 1884 through the American Missionary Association after graduation, a Protestant-based abolitionist group from Albany, New York.

[1][5][6] In c. 1888, the St. Paul Congregational Church under the leadership of Gunner supported the founding of the Howe Institute, an African-American private Baptist primary and grammar school in New Iberia.

[7] He was outspoken about the effects of "race problems" while living in New Iberia; and according to Booker T. Washington, Gunner had heard that a white mob was coming for him so he abruptly left the city.

[6][8] In 1890, Gunner moved to serve as pastor at the newly opened First Congregational Church in Lexington, Kentucky.

[4] In August 1916, he called Black Americans to join for the formation of a National Race Congress in a publication in the Cleveland Advocate newspaper.