Charles Turner (June 10, 1940 – December 25, 2019) was an American politician and activist, who served on the Boston City Council representing District 7. Turner was a member of the Green-Rainbow Party Massachusetts affiliate to the national Green Party. In 2010, Turner was convicted of accepting a bribe and sentenced to three years in prison; he was expelled from the city council. Education and career as activist A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Turner graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in government in 1963. He became a community organizer in Boston's South End in 1966, becoming an advocate for public housing and affordable housing. He founded the Boston Jobs Council, which pressed to reserve a portion of public jobs in Boston for Boston residents, a bid to increase the number of black and Latino construction workers in the city. Boston City Council In November 1999, Turner was elected to the Boston City Council as the member for District 7, which encompasses the neighborhoods of Roxbury and Lower Roxbury, as well as parts of the Fenway, South End, and Dorchester. Turner won his seat by a 693-vote margin against the city's director of youth services, who was the preferred candidate of Mayor Tom Menino. Turner had a volatile tenure on the council, and was known for "outspoken actions and often abrasive personality." In February 2004, angry at being removed from the Education Committee, he compared City Council President Michael F. Flaherty to Louise Day Hicks, an opponent of the city's desegregation busing. He had also accused limits placed on debate as being "institutional racism." In November 2001 and November 2007, Turner won over 80% of the vote in his re-election bids; he ran unopposed in November 2003 and November 2005. He was more closely challenged in November 2009, defeating Carlos Henriquez by approximately a 60% to 40% margin. In 2002, he authored an ordinance protecting transgender persons from discrimination that was overwhelmingly approved by the council and signed into law. When Governor Mitt Romney tried to end the state's affirmative action guidelines, Turner became one of its aggressive critics, helping to lead the governor stop the change. In April 2004, Turner was quoted by the Boston Herald as saying that Condoleezza Rice working for George W. Bush was "similar in my mind to a Jewish person working for Hitler in the 1930s." In May 2004, Turner and