Spurred by his reading of the Bible and the writings of Olin T. Binkley of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, he began preaching against prejudice.
After he and Leo Burnett, a supervisor at the local hosiery mill, persuaded the students and their parents to end their boycott, Turner and Burnett escorted them back to school on December 4, 1956, amid a hostile crowd.
Upon his return, he was severely beaten by members of the local White Citizens' Council.
Turner hoped to attend divinity school but was long unable to obtain the money.
In 1958, he moved to another church in Nashville, where he continued to be active in the civil rights movement.