He wrote a syndicated newspaper column and toured the nation, speaking on the importance of agricultural innovation and the achievements at Tuskegee. Carver's inventions include hundreds of products, including more than from peanuts milk, plastics, paints, dyes, cosmetics, medicinal oils, soap, ink, wood stains , from sweet potatoes molasses, postage stamp glue, flour, vinegar and synthetic rubber and even a type of gasoline. At the time, cotton production was on the decline in the South, and overproduction of a single crop had left many fields exhausted and barren.
Carver suggested planting peanuts and soybeans, both of which could restore nitrogen to the soil, along with sweet potatoes. While these crops grew well in southern climates, there was little demand. Contrary to popular belief, Carver did not invent peanut butter.
However, he did do a lot of research into new and alternate uses for peanuts. The following year, Carver testified before Congress in support of a tariff on imported peanuts, which Congress passed in Carver also spoke about the possibilities for racial harmony in the United States.
From to , Carver toured white Southern colleges for the Commission on Interracial Cooperation. However, he largely remained outside of the political sphere and declined to criticize prevailing social norms outright.
This made the politics of accommodation championed by both Carver and Booker T. Washington anathema to activists who sought more radical change. Nonetheless, Carver's scholarship and research contributed to improved quality of life for many farming families, making Carver an icon for African Americans and white Americans alike. Carver died after falling down the stairs at his home on January 5, , at the age of He was buried next to Booker T.
Washington on the Tuskegee grounds. Carver's epitaph reads: "He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world. Carver, who had lived a frugal life, used his savings to establish a museum, the George Washington Carver Museum, Cultural and Genealogy Center in Austin, Texas, which was devoted to his work, including some of his own paintings and drawings.
In December , a fire broke out in the museum, destroying much of the collection. One of the surviving works by Carver is a painting of a yucca and a cactus, displayed at the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition of In addition to the museum, Carver also established the George Washington Carver Foundation at Tuskegee, with the aim of supporting future agricultural research.
Both peanuts and sweet potatoes were slowly incorporated into Southern cooking, and today the peanut especially is ubiquitous in the American diet. Carver also developed traveling schools and other outreach programs to educate farmers. He published popular bulletins, distributed to farmers for free, that reported on his research at the Agricultural Experiment Station and its applications.
Through chemistry and conviction Carver revolutionized Southern agriculture and raised the standard of living of his fellow man. In addition to the popular honor of being one of the most recognized names in African American history, Carver received the Spingarn Medal and was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
The George Washington Carver National Monument was the first national monument dedicated to a black American and the first to a nonpresident.
For brothers William and Lawrence Knox, earning PhDs in chemistry was not enough to overcome discrimination. Skip to main content. Scott, Kan. He earned much of his tuition by working in the kitchen of a local hotel. He concocted new recipes, which he entered in local baking contests. He graduated from Minneapolis High School in and set his sights on college. George first applied to Highland Presbyterian College in Kansas. Over the next few years, George worked at a variety of jobs.
He homesteaded a farm in Kansas, worked a ranch in New Mexico, and worked for the railroads, always saving money and looking for a college that would accept him.
He began studying art and piano, expecting to earn a teaching degree. Working as director of the Iowa State Experimental Station, Carver discovered two types of fungi, which were subsequently named for him. Carver also began experiments in crop rotation, using soy plantings to replace nitrogen in depleted soil. Before long, Carver became well known as a leading agricultural scientist.
In April , Carver received a letter from Booker T. The last from the position you now occupy you will no doubt achieve. These things I now ask you to give up.
I offer you in their place: work — hard work, the task of bringing people from degradation, poverty and waste to full manhood. Your department exists only on paper and your laboratory will have to be in your head. Carver left Diamond Grove at age 12 to pursue an education, a quest that led him to Iowa. In , he began to study music and art at Simpson College. Painting enabled him to combine his two loves — art and nature.
Yet it was his horticultural talents that took him in another direction in In , he received a request from Booker T. Upon arriving, he found that the school was short on funds so Dr. Carver had to equip his own lab. He and his students would search trash heaps for items to use. This resourcefulness proved that Dr.
Carver was well ahead of his time. These scavenger hunts with his students were an early example of recycling and the conservation of natural resources.
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