College of Marin professor inspires students, gives back to community

Walter Turner has spent decades studying, traveling, teaching and producing media on Africa. He has shared the stage with greats such as educator and activist Angela Davis. He’s had his boots on the ground in South Africa during its historic elections in 1994. And he’s inspired many students as a social sciences teacher at the College of Marin and through his work with the community college’s Umoja program, which works to provide academic success, personal growth and self-actualization of African American and other students.

The chairperson of COM’s social sciences department, he’s led research and study delegations around the world, including some with San Francisco nonprofit Global Exchange, whose board he’s president of, including one to Nigeria that focused on oil and human rights.

But, the Richmond resident isn’t one to talk about himself. Instead, he’s quick to talk about the others who work alongside him, the ways that he’s been able to give back to the Marin community that he grew up in — his family was among the early settlers in Marin City — and recognize as an African American man those who came before him.

And he’s continuing to pay it forward as coordinator of the Umoja Equity Institute, COM’s new effort at building institutional equity at the college and the greater Marin County community, addressing issues such as housing and other economic disparities.

Q You’ve been at COM for many years. What inspired you to want to teach, especially classes on Africa and African American history?

A I came from a community of people who believed that education was a pathway, not only to personal pursuits and being able to be employed and have mobility and to raise a family, but more importantly, to be part of your community and give back to your community. I was very fortunate in that I worked for a book publisher early on when I was at SF State and writing about African American history. I was also fortunate to be one of the teachers at the Marin City Learning Center. My family has always been voracious readers so I’ve always been a reader, a studier and a traveler, so it’s part of my blood that I am involved with education and community affairs.

Q Does giving back drive some of the work you do?

A There’s no doubt about it. I am from the Marin City community, a community where we knew everybody. In my position at the college, I see many people who are second or third generation from those families who grew up in Marin City. I am always driven do that work, where you can contribute to society and can make an impact on young people. And to seize the moment and seize the times, this moment in history where people are asking for and demanding changes. One of my dreams at the college is to make sure our students have a chance to be successful, live out their dreams and to be able to see the world.

Q You were part of the Marin chapter of the Black Panthers. Is that where your activism began?

A No, I was always an activist. If you were in the African American community, you always had to be an activist. We were providing programs, what we called survival programs, that were not normally provided to African American and poor communities.

Q What inspired your KPFA radio show “Africa Today”?

A I have always had an interest in Africa. It started somewhere in seventh or eighth grade. I had the opportunity to learn and travel to Africa very early on in my life when I was a student at UC Berkeley, and then I was a director of Oakland’s Africa Resource Center. My work with at KPFA morphed into a regular show for more than 25 years. I have traveled to many countries in Africa, Cuba, the Caribbean, wherever there are African people, looking at culture and history and finding a way to bring that back.

Q How have your frequent trips shaped you?

A It gives you a global perspective. It encourages you to get beyond the news, the disinformation and the negative information. I went to school in Ghana, spent some time studying in places like Haiti, Kenya, Egypt and South Africa for many years, among others. African people, Black people, we are three-dimensional. Our history is broad, our culture is broad.