Activist Dorothy Nell Turner said what she meant and meant what she said; no sass, no popping off

There is an old Southern adage that says: “Just because a chicken got wings don’t mean it can fly”. Dorothy Nell Turner certainly was no chicken, but she could fly off the wings of civility faster than Mary discovered that her little lambs were lost. Turner did not sass talk or pop off. But you better believe that she said what she meant, and meant what she said.

Civil rights activist Dorothy Nell Turner

An Austin, Texas civil rights activist, Turner was not afraid to go toe-to-toe with the school board, politicians, city council members, the police department, her place of employment, the local airport, large grocery store chains. If Turner had to go it alone she did not hesitate to declare war on anyone she perceived as an enemy. It did not matter if they were Black, White or “other.”  She was tolerant of people who did not concur with her points of view.

Turner spent a great deal of her time addressing police brutality and discrimination against African American’s disenfranchisement from equal protection of the law. Abuse, harassment, beatings and shooting deaths at the hands of local cops regularly played out in East Austin homes and streets like scripted movies.  

To attract media attention Turner was savoy enough to realize that she needed a strategy, if all of Austin was to learn about the unfair treatment of Black and Brown minorities in Austin.  

She said, “You’ve got to have something real messy. And getting them to come out doesn’t mean they’re going to cover the story. But if you’re hitting it real hard in your press statement, if you throw in a little dirt, attack a politician, you might get a little blurb in the print media, you might do the five seconds on TV. You need to use five forums, city council meetings, have the mayor try to get you arrested, things like that.

“Once it’s out there, it’s like telling a jury to disregard something gin court. How are you going to disregard it once it’s there? Civil disobedience is in order on a lot of things. If you want to get state coverage, or national coverage, go up to the Capital. We had a girl on Phil Donahue twice, just by going up to the Capital. There’s always a way to get the coverage. You just got to be ready to do it”. (The Austin Chronicle) 

Turner was instrumental in creating a community newspaper called The Grassroots Struggle. The paper relayed stories of East Austin's politically marginalized and maligned citizens. The paper was informative, having editorials and the organization’s concerns and goals. Turner was one of the paper's writers. She wrote editorials the same way she spoke, putting her own truth to the power she fought for, and encouraged others to fight for.

The Black Citizens Task Force mobilized protests against police in the early 1980’s when a Black man named Gril Couch entered a popular East Austin restaurant during a busy lunch hour. He had been drinking, and was pestering customers for money. He would not leave when asked by the owner. Before she could call police, two White plainclothes officers happened to come for lunch. They walked in the door, immediately observing Couch. He was standing near the door. An alcoholic, he was belligerent and irritated. No one was giving him money. He approached the two White males, one of his hand outstretched, asking them for money.

Neither cop identified himself as an officer. Diners did not know who they were. Gril Couch thought they were customers. Soon after he approached them an argument started, followed by a struggle. Couch, a familiar face on East 11 and 12 Streets, ended up in front of the restaurant, face down in a chokehold on the summer hot sidewalk. He struggled to break free, but he could not break the cop’s hold. Couch was dead by the time the ambulance arrived. Witnesses thought he had passed out because he had been drinking alcohol.

Some diners that witnessed Couch’s death later concluded that he was murdered by the two White guys in a predominately African American neighborhood. No one knew they were cops until it was reported on the news. The police chief said the choking death was justified.

In 1985 a Nigerian exchange student met his death at the hands of Austin police officers. With Turner out front, the Black Citizens Task Force (BCTF) held press conferences to complain about police brutality, and Black men dying at the hands of White officers. The Nigerian student was suffocated in his water bed by three White cops responding to a domestic disturbance call.  

BCTF held protests in front of the police station every day for 16 months. They protested in the same spot for 18 months after the death of Gril Couch. The protests and meetings with the police chief gave birth to some short lived changes. 

Dorothy Turner’s running mate and buddy was Velma Roberts, also a community activists and president of the Welfare Rights Organization. Turner was imposing woman, standing about 5’6 in flat shoes, weighing about 175 pounds. Roberts weighed around 145 pounds, standing about a little over five feet. Turner’s voice was loud and threatening. Roberts’s voice was softer but her words could be just as stinging as Turner’s.  

At some point during the movement Turner decided to change her fashion style. Shucking her regular mode of dress, Turner commenced wearing African influenced fashions. Because the civil rights duo were together so often they were nicknamed “Batman and Robin.” They joined forces with University of Texas minority students to fight racism and discrimination on campus.  

Turner was the last member to act as president of the Black Citizens Task Force (BCTF), created in 1972 by Dr. John Warfield, Charles Urdy, Tommy Wyatt, Velma Roberts, Larry Jackson and Charles Miles. Turner joined the organization in 1974, becoming its president in 1979. She held onto that position until 2005. BCTF began to lose its power and political influence during the 1990’s. The young people that Turner trained and focused on could not hold the organization together.

A mother of four, grandmother of eight, Turner was born in 1935. Like all African Americans in Austin she was forced to live in the designated “Colored District”. She dropped out of school and got married at 15. Turner’s mother owned and operated a popular bar called the Victory Grill on East 11Street. It was one of the chitlin’ circuit stop-offs for up and coming entertainers who went on to become big names, such as B. B. King and Bobby Blue Bland.

Turner’s upfrontness and hell raising produced changes in her place of employment and the City of Austin. Employed at Brackenridge Hospital, in the food service department, Turner filed two complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) after realizing that she and her fellow employees were not earning a fair pay, nor were they getting raises or promotions. 

For her efforts Turner was harassed on the job. She was reprimanded, getting poor performance evaluations. But she was too stubborn and determined to back down and quit. And, too, administrators at the city owned hospital did not want the negative publicity that Turner would not hesitate to part with in a press conference. Eventually her resoluteness paid off. Minority employees that did not agree with Turner benefited from her actions. She worked at Brackenridge Hospital until she retired. Turner earned a promotion from food service to Employee Relations specialist, replete with her own office.

Turner filed a class action lawsuit against the City of Austin and Mueller airport, once again tackling discrimination against minorities and women. As a result of the lawsuit the City hired its first African American personnel director, and first female assistant city manager. Mueller hired a Black female spokesperson, a first for Austin’s only airport.

Turner was dubbed “the Mother of the Movement” by the young people she hoped would follow in

Dorothy Nell Turner,  1935-2005

her footsteps. Some of her admirers and followers called her "Mrs. T." Many of them participated BCTF initiated marches and demonstrations. 

Margie Hill of Austin was one of the many mourners who expressed their memories of  Turner in a Guest Book after her death. All of the mourners wrote about how she touched and affected their lives, leaving them with life lessons.

"Dorothy Turner was a fearless warrior. She was one of a kind. She stood all and never backed down on anything she set out to change for the betterment of the people in the community. We will miss you, Dorothy. Austin will never have another that will stand up and do what you have for this community. You made us a proud people. We must never forget the legacy of your works, the struggles you had to endure to make changes for us. We are grateful and thankful, because God made a warrior such as yourself to fight for your fellow kinsmen to have a better life in Austin, Texas. You stood courageously with dignity and pride, because you wanted justice, liberty and freedom for us all."

Older African Americans did not admire or view Turner with the same adoring eyes. However, when they needed her help they did not hesitate to contact her and Velma Roberts. 

An African American millionaire who hobnobbed with other moneyed people—Black and White--did not approve of Turner. One day he was stopped by police and treated like an “ordinary” Black man residing on the East side. This businessman’s office was located in the area, but he lived in an exclusive all White neighborhood.

When he came to the newspaper where I worked he wanted his story told. Other than being a Black millionaire his story of getting stopped and disrespected by a White police officer was no different from the Black man or woman earning minimum wage and living in East Austin. Way beyond angry, the realtor wanted to know how to contact Turner or Roberts. He wanted them to publicly address the humiliation he had suffered, getting stopped for no reason other than driving an expensive car. He did not want to march with Roberts, Turner and other protestors. He merely wanted them to make the police leave him alone, and recognize that he was different. 

In 1998 a proposal presented to the city council to rename Rosewood Avenue to Dorothy Turner Blvd. The proposal evolved into a controversy that not all East Austin residents agreed with. Though the street itself is short, intersecting with Hargrave Street, several businesses and Rosewood Park carried its name. At the council meetings the verbal battling was lively and boisterous. Compliments for Turner were few and far between.  

An outspoken Dorothy Turner supporter named Frank Garrett demanded that council members consent to the proposal. He admonished them if they did not rename Rosewood he would personally print Turner’s name on card boards and tape them over the street’s name.  

One noted businesswoman, Mrs. Nobles, owner of Rosewood BBQ, located between East 11 and Rosewood, argued that the street name was synonymous with her and her husband’s business. She suggested that the City of Austin find a “nice little alley” to name for Turner. Renaming of Rosewood was defeated in 2001, the same year Councilman Danny Thomas proposed renaming Hargrave Street to Velma Roberts Street. The idea was also rejected.

Dorothy Turner, 69, died at her home April 6, 2005 after a long bout cancer. She was funeralized at St. John Tabernacle, April 14.

A 17-foot bronze monument to honor the civil rights work of Volma Overton, Velma Roberts and Dorothy Turner was unveiled and dedicated 2008. It can be seen on the grounds of the Turner-Roberts Recreation Center, located at 7201 Colony Loop Drive.

Inscription on the monument: Volma Overton, Dorothy Turner and Velma Roberts were effective pioneering activists in Austin's civil rights movement in the second half of the 20th Century. Volma Overton led the Austin Chapter of the NAACP for 20 years and initiated the federal lawsuit that desegregated Austin's public schools. 

Dorothy Turner and Velma Roberts founded and led the Black Citizens Task Force, sustaining constant pressure on city government to pay attention to the African American community. They persisted in the struggle for racial equality, equal opportunities and equal justice for all citizens of Austin.

***Also see "Velma Roberts: East Austin civil rights activist and all around hell raiser" 

Velma Roberts: East Austin civil rights activist and all-around hell raiser

Velma Carter Roberts (standing) holds meeting with adults and children attending. Looking on are her daughter "Penny" Yvette Johnson, and her son Hank Johnson, Jr. (right corner) Sitting behind (left) her is one of the UT student's that helped organized the Welfare Rights Organization.

Velma Carter Roberts was one of East Austin’s African American civil rights activists. She got involved in politics when she was named president of the local Welfare Rights Organization (WRO). As president of the organization her major focus was on the politics of poverty and the plight of women on welfare (AFDC.) Roberts was a working mother of five, and on welfare. She was perfect for WRO.

In 1968 a couple graduate students from the University of Texas School of Social Work, came to East Austin to recruit women on welfare to participate in their project. They were looking for a welfare recipient to be president of WRO. Women, basically living in East Austin, were invited to a meeting to get more information about the program. Whereas all the women approached said no to the position, Roberts accepted. All work with Welfare Rights Organization was voluntary. Roberts had never dabbled in politics, but she was confident she could step up to the plate and hit a home run for impoverished women and their children in East Austin. She was a natural politician.

Velma Roberts

“Even though at the time I didn’t consider myself to be political, I had the personality needed to be an activist. I didn’t take nothing off of nobody, Black or White. I understood what little rights I had and didn’t believe in letting anybody put me down. This, more than being political, was what helped me in Welfare Rights. Sometimes activists are too smart, too intellectual. In some cases what is needed is an old-fashioned hands-on-your-hips attitude: ‘You mess with me, I will mess with you.’ All people tend to understand this,” said Roberts in No Apologies: Texas Radicals Celebrate the 60s, edited by Daryl Janes, Eakin Press, 1992.

The local WRO was an offshoot of an Ohio chapter. This is where the UT students got the idea to start a chapter in Austin. Women who participated in the program were recruited predominately from Rosewood and Booker T. Washington Projects. At the time Roberts was working as a waitress at the La Petite Restaurant in East Austin, a favorite hangout for middle class professionals. Roberts had to learn to multi-task, wearing more than one face. Not only did she work a split shift, she also had to focus on her WRO duties that called for speaking engagements, media interviews and meetings. She was responsible for recruiting, organizing and overseeing fundraisers. She got lucky and was guest on the Oprah Winfrey show. The subject was women on welfare.

Roberts began attending city council meetings. Almost immediately she became a pain the Council’s side, especially for the only African American councilman, Berl Hancock. At one meeting during a heated exchange, Roberts threatened to throw a shoe at Hancock, who rose up from his seat on the dais to call Roberts' threat. Oddly, Hancock was a frequent customer at the restaurant where she worked. They managed to be civil toward each other until they locked horns at council meetings.

With enough volunteers in place, Roberts' the first big project on the table was taking on the free or reduced lunch program in East Austin elementary schools. Not all women on AFDC knew that their children were eligible to get free or reduced lunches. The Welfare Rights Organization wanted schools to cease the discrimination against these children, who were treated differently from paying students. When they went to lunch they were issued different color cards, distinguishing them from paying students. There was one color for free lunch; a color for half price lunch, and a color for full price lunch. 

"Welfare children" were scorned and made fun of, and harassed by paying students and some teachers. Taking on this venture drove Roberts further into politics, acquainting her with local politicians that she would be dealing with on a regular basis. Roberts liked the power the Welfare Rights Organization afforded her. She said the power helped her “get things done.”

“With the sweet taste of victory still fresh, we set out to deal with the County Commissioners Court about the way commodities were distributed. . . . Before food stamps, poor people were given commodities--surplus farm products the government bought from farmers who planted too much. Those commodities, packaged in brown paper with USDA stamped in big red letters all over it, consisted of flour, (corn) meal, canned chopped meat (like Spam), rice, butter, cheese, powdered milk and oatmeal.

"People would start lining up outside the distribution station before sunup and would sometimes have to stand there all day. I'm talking about hundreds of mothers, babies and senior citizens in the rain, cold, the hottest of summers, going through hell to get what was rightfully theirs." (No Apologies)

Roberts said WRO wanted the county to use a numbers system and provide a facility for people to wait indoors. WRO members testified before the Commissioners Court for one year. Their Monday testifying eventually bore fruit. The Commission agreed to conduct a study "that told them the same things we had been saying for free," said Roberts. "It would have made more sense for the Commissioners to donate the $9,000 fee to the Welfare Rights Organization, but that is not the way politics works. The simple has look complicated, and the complicated has to look simple".

The Welfare Rights Organization teamed up with Larry Jackson’s Community United Front CUF) in the late 1960s to start a free breakfast program, a free day care center and a CUF newspaper. Elementary aged children were fed a hot breakfast before going to school. The program extended to summer when school was out. They eventually approached the Austin Independent School District (AISD) to commence a free breakfast program. AISD refused to implement such a program. Austin schools were segregated and did not desegregate until 1971.

“Again we started our own program. We fed between fifty and seventy kids every school day morning for three months. We then went to the school board to ask that they put breakfast programs in the three remaining elementary schools.” (No Apologies) All minority children were bused across town to attend high and middle schools, populated by a majority White student body. Black and Hispanic students were greeted with racial hatred, harassment and ridicule.

Neither Jackson nor Roberts were willing to accept defeat. Attending a school board meeting, WRO and CUF planned in advance to take control of the microphone, blocking others from speaking. “It just so happened that this was the same meeting where teachers were asking for a pay raise. Finally, the board approved a breakfast program—not for three additional schools, but for twelve. Today, every school in AISD has a breakfast program.” (No Apologies) 

In 1974 Roberts began working as a paralegal at the Legal Aid Society. Her duties with WRO had prepared her to work at Legal Aid. The clients she represented were mostly poor and on welfare. She also handled other kinds of cases that did not require appearances before a judge. Roberts acted as a representative in food stamp and welfare hearings, where certified lawyers were not required.

In addition, Roberts and a co-worker at Legal Aid worked with Black and Hispanic kids who were getting harassed and suspended at schools. They also worked with East Austin residents receiving the blunt end of harassment, death and brutalization by police officers. These three illnesses were like an aggressive disease plaguing minority communities.

Roberts and her co-worker regularly took affidavits from East Austin residents and business owners, personally delivering the complaints to Police Chief Bob Miles as proof of excessive police harassment and brutality. 

Roberts, her co-worker, several night club owners and the NAACP President Nelson Linder, often met with Bob Miles in an attempt solve the police problem. In addition to stopping minorities for no reason, police officers waited for customers exit from bars. Customers were allowed to drive a block or two, stopped and given a DWI or warning. It did not matter if they had only drank one beer or 12. After Miles resigned, the meetings continued with the next chief. None of these actions occurred across town at White run bars and clubs.

One of the most noted political organizations that Roberts joined was Black Voters Against Paternalism (V-VAP). It was formed to help Dr. Bud Dryden win re-election to the City Council. Dryden, a White physician, had a large Black clientele. Roberts was one of the founders of the Black Citizens Task Force (BCTF), a political leaning group that addressed high unemployment, discrimination and other problems haunting East Austin residents. The organization confronted businesses that refused to hire African Americans. BCTF also took on the Austin Police Department, the City of Austin hiring practices, the local airport, even a large grocery store chain. As a result of marching and protesting some of the "norms" changed.

In 1975 the Black Citizens Task Force supported, and then opposed single member districts. According to Roberts, “In ’75, Austin was still a fairly liberal, progressive city. Blacks, Browns and young Whites formed a coalition to fight the oppression of the more conservative West Austin establishment. But by the mid-‘80s, the racial climate had changed. Many of Austin’s former friends were part of the establishment that oppressed us, and we didn’t think we would gain from giving up seven votes on the council for maybe one Black representative who might or might not serve BCTF’s interests.” (No Apologies) The Welfare Rights Organization disbanded in 1975.

In later years the Black Citizens Task Force lost the majority of its members. Dorothy Turner became president in 1974, Roberts its VP. Wherever you saw one of these two, you saw the other. Some people tagged them" Batman and Robin." Turner was tall, robust, and bold and  referred to as "Mother of the Struggle"; Roberts was petite, with a medium build.  In her maturing years she managed to tranquilize her biting verbiage. However, she was still capable of resorting to that hands-on-her-hips take no mess version of herself when she was provoked. Turner, on the other hand, was a verbal battering ram, who was in no mood to be tamed or roped in. A daily newspaper said Roberts was “cool headed” but Turner was “hot headed.”

Velma Carter Roberts died November, 2000 at St. David’s Hospital. She was 70 years old. On May 31, 2008 the Turner-Roberts Recreation Center was finally dedicated to Roberts and Turner’s honor, after years of opposition from opponents who did not want to see it happen.  At a city council meeting a vocal activist and prominent businesswoman from East Austin suggested that the council "name a small alley" after the two women. Supporters of Roberts and Turner wanted to change the name of a popular East Austin Street to honor the two.

However, these long-time businesspeople--older African Americans- were no fans of Turner and Roberts and were not willing to change Rosewood Ave. to Turner/Robert Ave. These old businesspeople were not willing to step forward to take on the issues these activists volunteered to tackle.

 Velma Carter Roberts and Dorothy Turner were quite the team, and that meant double trouble for disagreeable politicians. In 2001 City Councilman Danny Thomas proposed renaming Hargrave Street to Velma Roberts and Rosewood Avenue to Dorothy Turner Blvd. The proposals could not garner a full council vote. Again, this showed a division in the Black community. Thomas thought he could change some minds.

Because of inadequate construction and interior problems, the Turner-Roberts Recreation Center, it has been closed indefinitely. If they were alive Roberts and Turner would see this as a knock down of their achievements.

Pictured above is the is a monument that stands in front of the Turner-Roberts Recreation Center. Also pictured is long time civil rights leaders Volma Overton. Left is a complete picture of the monument that can be seen at the Turner-Roberts Recreation Center, 7201 Colony Loop.