
One of the most accomplished
and famous African Americans
of the 20th century, George
Washington Carver overcame
nearly every obstacle placed in
his path to fulfill his lifelong
passion for learning, using his
hard-earned education to
improve the lives of his fellow
blacks and those living in the
deep South.
Carver was a born a slave
No documents survive detailing Carver’s birth, but he was likely born around
1864 or 1865, on the farm of Moses Carver, near Diamond Grove, Missouri.
His mother, Mary, was owned by Moses Carver, and his father, who died
either before or after George’s birth, was enslaved on a nearby farm.
Shortly after his birth, Mary and George were kidnapped by Confederate
raiders who hoped to sell them for profit. Moses attempted to track them down
but was only able to locate young George, and he never saw his mother
again.
Freed from slavery after the end of the Civil War but a sickly youth, George
and his brother Jim were raised by Moses and his wife, Susan. The first in a
series of couples who recognized and nurtured George’s native abilities and
talents, they taught him to read and encouraged his early interest in plants
and nature, with Carver working alongside Susan in her garden, and
wandering the nearby woods and fields, collecting specimens.
Carver didn’t begin formal education until he was about 12
Unable to attend the local whites-only elementary school, George left the
Carvers farm to pursue his education in Neosho, Missouri, where he lived and
worked with a black couple, Mariah and Andrew Watkins. Carver learned
more about plants and herbs from Mariah’s work as a midwife, but he found
himself disappointed in the lack of academic rigor in the local black school.
By the late 1870s, Carver was on the move again. He joined a number of
other African-Americans who decided to move west, primarily to Kansas, as
part of a mass migration known as the “Exodusters.” He supported himself
through odd jobs, before finally graduating from Minneapolis High School in
Minneapolis, Kansas.
When Carver was denied admission to college, he educated
himself
Carver received a full scholarship to Kansas’
Highland College, but when he
showed up on campus to enroll, school administers refused to admit him —
claiming they had been unaware of his race.
Once again, Carver took matters into his own hands. He settled a
homesteading claim, where he dedicated his time to assembling an extensive
collection of botany and geological specimens.
He eventually made his way to Iowa, where the bright young man once again
found support from a local couple, John and Helen Millholand. They
encouraged him to enroll in Simpson College, a small school open to all
races. Despite his later fame as an agriculturalist, Carver initially studied
music and art. (He even showed some of his paintings at the 1893 World’s
Fair in Chicago.)
He was the first black student - and faculty member - at Iowa
State University
Carver’s art teacher at Simpson, Etta Budd, helped push him towards his life’s
work. Fearing that Carver would struggle to make a living as a black artist,
and knowing of his lifelong love of plants, Budd convinced Carver to switch his
course of study to botany and to transfer to Iowa State University (then known
as Iowa State Agricultural College).
Carver was accepted as the school’s first black student and received his
bachelor’s degree in agricultural sciences in 1894 when he was around 30
years old. Recognizing his talents, the school asked him to stay on as an
instructor while he obtained his master’s degree, which he finished in 1896,
becoming the first African American to earn an advanced degree in the field.
Carver spent more than 40 years at Tuskegee
Shortly after obtaining his master’s degree, Carver was lured away from Iowa
by Booker T. Washington. Washington was a prominent educator and the
founder of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now Tuskegee
University) in Alabama.
The school initially focused on offering vocational training for blacks, and in
1896, Washington pursued Carver to lead its new agricultural department.
Although he originally planned on staying at Tuskegee for just a few years, he
remained there for the rest of his career. Despite initially limited funding, he
soon created a thriving research institute and became a beloved and inspiring
teacher to his students.
Like Washington, Carver advocated for increased educational opportunities
for African Americans, although both men were criticized by other black
leaders, including W.E.B. Du Bois, who preached a more aggressive,
confrontational approach to racism and segregation in America, and attacked
Washington and Carver for their focus on vocational skills as a means of
advancement.
Carver’s “movable schools” helped save Southern farmers
Carver became a pioneer of emerging agricultural theories like soil
conservation and crop rotation, both desperately needed due to an
overreliance on growing cotton that left the soil on many southern farms
dangerously depleted.
Carver taught agricultural extension programs at Tuskegee and began his
decades-long research experiments with alternative crops like sweet potatoes
and, most famously, peanuts, developing more than 300 different uses and
earning him lasting fame as the “peanut man."
But Carver realized that low literacy rates across the Deep South and a lack of
educational opportunities made it difficult to spread his message where it was
needed most. He offered night school classes and abbreviated agricultural
conferences held during non-harvesting seasons.
Beginning in 1906, Carver helped organize a series of agricultural schools on
wheels that traveled around Alabama offering practical, hands-on lessons and
information on everything from crop, seed and fertilizer selection to dairy
farming, nutrition and the best types of animals to breed in particular regions.
These "moveable schools" reached thousands of people each month and
were eventually expanded to include sanitation demonstrations and registered
nurses who offered medical advice and assistance.
Carver patented very few inventions, preferring to allow others to benefit from
his work. His focus on the importance of education remained a lifelong
passion. Upon his death in 1943, he bequeathed $60,000 to establish the
George Washington Carver Foundation, which provides funding for black
researchers at Tuskegee.
SDIRC would like to thank the Indian River County NAACP Branch #5151 for providing the content in today's 'Black History Heroes' biography.