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Henry Charles Turner lived during the
nineteenth through the twentieth centuries as a scientist, Charles had earned his P.H.D
in zoology from the University of Chicago, one of the few black men
to do so. His love of learning was given to him by his parents. Henry Turner Charles was a wise man. He was an African American born in Cincinnati, Ohio on February 3,1867. Henry`s dad was a church custodian from Alberta, Canada and Henry`s mother was a nurse from Lexington, Kentucky name Addie Campbell Turner. Sadly Henry`s mom was a slave, but his dad was a man who loved to read and owned several hundred books.  Henry joined the Walnut Hill District school and also he joined the Gains High School which just opened a year after he was born and was a school for African Americans. He graduated number one in his class and went on to earn his B.S. from the University of Cincinnati in biology . In 1892 Henry gladly became the first African American to received a M.S from the University of Cincinnati.1907 was a good year as Henry received his PH.D degree. His dissertation was "The Homing of Ants: An Experimental Study of Ant Behavior." Henry taught at many schools, from Evanston, Indiana back to Cincinnati and then on to Clark University in Atlanta, Georgia. Henry had a sincere desire "to Get to work among my own people." Mostly Henry`s goal was for white and black Americans to have the same education -not different from one another. All the other teaching positions he took were at African American schools. Henry was one of the first African American to study animal behavior, but not many people know much about his hard work. Back then people thought insects couldn`t hear, Henry, however in the late 1914 proved them wrong and showed that insects could hear perfectly well. He did many tests with his ant and caterpillar apparatus', His methods have been called "ingenious". The first African American to be published in the "Journal of Animal Behavior" he also published numerous articles which helped establish him as a world class biologist. His work included the color and pattern recognition of honeybees, Other animals he explored were wasps, cockroaches and spiders among many others. Henry loved to publish his work. He published over seventy articles, but when it came to research about insects he was among the world's best. His research on insects focused about how they eat ,look hear ,see in short how they behave.. Because Henry wanted to find out more about insects, he decided it would be best for him to teach at a high school, which allowed him more time to devote to his research. From 1907 to 1908 he was honored as the professor of biology and also of chemistry at Haines. Henry moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he taught at Summer High School. Henry died on February 14,1923 at his son Darwin's house. He was fifty five years old. The Turner Tanner building at Clark University in Atlanta was named in honor of his achievements. |
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