Van Turner, NAACP president, former commissioner, starts run for Memphis mayor

Van Turner, a former county commissioner, president of the Memphis Branch of the NAACP and an instrumental figure in bringing down Confederate statues in the city, will run for Memphis mayor in 2023.

Turner is running because he views Memphis as family, he said in his announcement Thursday, and because achieving the best things for one's family takes hard work.

"I want the same things for my family that I want for your family. We want good education, we want safe streets, we want good infrastructure … we want all these things for all of these families, but it’s going to take work and we’re going to meet those challenges," Turner said. "But I love Memphis, and that’s why I’m offering myself to service.”

A former Shelby County Commissioner whose term ended Wednesday, Turner is also a partner in the law firm of Bruce & Turner, PLLC and president and CEO of Memphis Greenspace, the nonprofit that purchased public parks in Memphis to remove Confederate monuments of Nathan Bedford Forrest and Jefferson Davis.

He was first elected to the county commission in August 2014 and reelected in 2018, holding the position of chairman for the 2018-2019 term.

And, he is former Shelby County Democratic Party chairman.

Turner made the announcement Thursday at the Health Sciences Park, the park that once housed a statue of Forrest, along with the graves of Forrest and his wife, before its purchase by Memphis Greenspace and the removal of the statue and the remains.

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Turner's announcement comes the same day as Paul Young, a longtime public official and current Downtown Memphis Commission CEO, making the two the first public entrants in what is expected to be a crowded race for mayor in 2023.

The election is 13 months away but there's been widespread jockeying among candidates for donations and media narrative. Young and Turner both sought to capitalize on 901 Day, the city's annual celebration of itself and its area code.

Turner pointed out in his announcement that he was standing where the Forrest statue had once stood. When his father and grandfather grew up, they paid taxes for the park’s upkeep, but couldn’t enjoy the park, he said.

“We had to take down this statue," Turner said. "We had to take down the white supremacy and all those things this statue meant in this community in order for us to progress forward. … We know that when we give our young people and everyone in this community opportunities, this community and city can thrive. But we’ve got to take down these structures that are holding us back.”

During his time on the county commission, Turner chaired the commission's healthcare committee, spending some of his final weeks in office advocating for a plan to commit funding to build a new campus for Regional One. He advocated for voting access, for the Department of Justice to reinstate oversight of juvenile court and for the creation of a new minority and women's business enterprise program for the county.

And as president of the Memphis branch of the NAACP, Turner represented the town of Mason when it sued Tennessee Treasury Comptroller Jason Mumpower and his office to stop a takeover of the town’s funds.

If elected as mayor, he will focus on poverty as a root cause of Memphis' public safety issues, Turner said. He also wants to invest in infrastructure, he said, targeting how Memphis has had power outages during storms and issues with potholes and garbage pickup.

“Economic opportunity for all," Turner said. "Building up downtown and midtown is good, but we’ve also got to build up Frayser, Raleigh, Whitehaven, South Memphis and North Memphis. … Memphis will only be the great city we know and love when we have opportunities for all, and we have to invest in distressed communities.”

Turner has a bachelor of arts from Morehouse College in Atlanta and a law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law.

Katherine Burgess covers county government and religion. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Van Turner, NAACP president, to run for Memphis mayor