After attending Oberlin College in Ohio, Turner returned to St. Louis in the late 1850s. He worked as a porter until the Civil War began. During the conflict, he acted as a body servant for Madison Miller, a Union colonel.

In 1871 President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Turner as the U.S. minister to Liberia, making him the first African American to hold that position. While serving in Liberia, Turner became convinced that African Americans should not return to Africa in large numbers. He did not believe they would be able to adapt to the climate. However, there were other blacks who did not agree. When he returned from Liberia in 1878, his influence began to decline. Like many other black leaders of the time, his status as an educated black alienated him from the black community.

He helped provide relief for blacks fleeing the South. Later he became an advocate for former black slaves of the Cherokee who had land and oil claims in the Oklahoma Indian Territory. About a month after being injured in a tank-car explosion, James Milton Turner died from blood poisoning on November 1, 1915.

source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Milton_Turner

http://www.blackpast.org/aaw/turner-james-milton-1840-1915