Skip to primary menu Skip to main content Skip to footer content

Our mission is to preserve, promote, and propel the right of all people to a place where they can live and prosper—a place to call home.

    Who is Ms. Beauty Turner?

    An altar created for the 2024 memorial birthday celebration of Ms. Beauty Turner. The altar features candles, felt flowers, a printed photo from Ms. Beauty’s blog, a hand-drawn version of the same photo, and other offerings from the NPHM’s Beauty Turner Academy programming.

    Beauty Turner is the ancestral namesake of the National Public Housing Museum’s Beauty Turner Academy of Oral History Training and Apprenticeship program. She was a Robert Taylor Homes resident, a mother, a journalist, a poet, and—in our opinion—an oral historian.

    Who is Ms. Beauty?

    Turner lived in the well-known Robert Taylor Homes for 16 years—up until the demolition of all the buildings. Her time in public housing and the impending Plan for Transformation led her to found the “GHETTO Bus Tours,” with GHETTO standing for “Greatest History Ever, Told To Our People.” Turner’s tours took visitors through various Chicago Housing Authority complexes and featured residents reflecting on their experiences in public housing. 

    Ms. Beauty lived 1957 – 2008, transitioning from a brain aneurysm shortly after Barack Obama won his first presidential election.

    The NPHM is honored to be working with her eldest son, Larry Turner, and other community members to preserve, honor, and uplift her legacy. 

    Larry Turner talks about his mother
    and “Hey Love”:

    Screencap of Ms. Beauty Turner's blog page. Her blog hosted much of her journalism work.

    Ms. Beauty was an avid writer. From poetry to journalism to musings on her blog, Ms. Beauty was constantly writing. Her multiple Blogspots are still online and can be found below. It’s a treasure trove of grassroots public housing advocacy and writing.

     

    Explore
    maria and amy meet canary brown in dearborn homes
    Ms. Beauty introduces a few tour participants to Canary Brown, a resident of Dearborn Homes.
    beauty and jim brown in cabrini
    Ms. Beauty posing with civil rights activist and football star, Jim Brown.
    A large group of Northwestern students pose in front of one of Ms. Beauty’s history walls in the building at the end of her tours.
    Article—ghetto tours
    A newspaper article about Ms. Beauty’s bus tours.
    GHETTO tour_ group outside of project
    A group of participants in one of Ms. Beauty’s GHETTO Bus Tours, posing in front of the Dearborn Homes.
    My Granny with her best friend and cousin, my Aunt Ernestine sitting on the front porch of 511 E Browning - The Ida. B. Wells E.X.T.s

    Hey Love, Got Some Sugar? :
    Meditations on Ms. Beauty Turner, Valentine’s Day, and Communal Love

    Beauty Turner was also an Aquarius, born during a waning crescent moon. In true Aquarius fashion, she was an innovator, a creator and a time traveler. Her blog, journalism work and Ghetto (Greatest History Ever Told To Our People) Bus Tours were capsules of humanitarian history. …

    Keep Reading

    Hear More about Ms. Beauty

    As we continue doing memory work around Ms. Beauty Turner’s life and legacy, more content will be added here.


    Stay tuned!