[2] His father was working class, and Turner attended the High School of Fashion Industries.
From 1963 to 1966 he attended Central Michigan University, earning a sociology degree and also studying political economy.
In that role he was involved in protests for the establishment of a Black Studies program, including a 1968 sit-in of the university bursar department.
[2] Turner was appointed as the director of Cornell University's newly formed Africana Studies and Research Center (ASRC) in June 1969.
[4] At Cornell, Turner wrote papers about his view of how Black Studies should be approached, a concept he termed "Africana", which the Encyclopedia of African-American Politics defined as "an interdisciplinary Pan African approach to blackness focusing on the US, the Caribbean and Africa."