[1][3] At the end of the 19th century, some twenty-seven schools for African American students that existed in Bedford County, Tennessee.

[4] Prior to the school opening in Shelbyville, Tennessee, there had been a different school also affiliated with the AME Church and also named Turner College was located in Hernando, Mississippi (near Memphis, Tennessee), which later was merged with Campbell College.

[5] These two schools were named after Bishop Henry McNeal Turner, who presided over the 1885 Tennessee Conference for the United Methodist Church.

[1] It was founded during a time of school racial segregation due to Jim Crow laws, and it was for African American students.

][1] In 1930, the school was moved to Memphis, Tennessee, however it only existed in that city for two years.

In 1932 after forty-three years in operations, the trustees announced the closure of what was then Turner College.