George Washington Carver:
Profiles in Courage for Black History Month
Born July 12, 1864 in Diamond Grove, Missouri, George Washington Carver was a scientific genius. Sometimes known as “God’s gift to peanut farmers” Carver revolutionized Southern agriculture through his research and inventions. He and his mother were kidnapped by Confederate slave raiders when he was an infant, and his father had died in an accident shortly before his birth.
From humble beginnings, George Washington Carver showed an active interest in the natural world. He studied plants as a youth, which led to a lifelong study of horticulture. A man of many talents including music, poetry and art, Carver settled on changing the world through botanical and agricultural discoveries. He was the first African American faculty member at Iowa State. He went on to get a Masters Degree and joined the faculty at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
Carver is Tuskegee’s most famous alumni and on tours of Tuskegee, it has been reported that the voice recordings of Carver’s high pitched voice, available to tourists, is a source of embarrassment. Some tour guides have gone out of there way to claim that Carver was not a gay man. But he was. He shared his life and his home with Austin Curtis, Jr. and Carver never had a known romantic relationship with any woman.
Believing that nature is the best teacher, Carver gained an international reputation in research a
nd teaching. Carver discovered three hundred uses for peanuts and over a hundred uses for sweet potatoes, soybeans and pecans. Although he only obtained three patents, he is credited with inventing recipes and improvements for: linoleum, mayonnaise, chili sauce, shaving cream, synthetic rubber, wood stain, adhesives, bleach, axle grease, meat tenderizer, shoe polish, talcum powder, ink, instant coffee, fuel briquettes, pavement, paper, and plastic.
Carver’s achievements were especially great because so much of what he did improved and provided a foundational purpose for the economy of the agricultural South, which suffered from soil depletions after growing mainly cotton and tobacco.
His research, discoveries and recommendations helped the South recover after the Civil War.
Carver did not work for profit or fame but freely gave his gifts to the world. He is quoted as saying, “God gave them (ideas) to me, how could I sell them to someone else?” Honor after honor came to Carver including the Springarn Medal from the NAACP, a medal from President Roosevelt for restoring southern agriculture, and a national monument, another first for an African American.
His epitaph states: “He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world.” He died in Tuskegee from an accidental fall in 1943.
For his genius and generosity NBJC salutes George Washington Carver an African American same gender loving man of invention.
