George Washington  CARVER

George Washington Carver was an extraordinary American scientist, botanist, and inventor, born in the early 1860s, most likely around 1864. His exact birth date is uncertain because he was born into slavery in Diamond, Missouri. Carver's early life was marked by hardship, but his determination and passion for learning ultimately led him to become one of the most prominent figures in agricultural science.

Carver was orphaned as an infant, and he and his brother were taken in by Moses and Susan Carver, the couple who had owned his mother. Despite facing the challenges of racism and poverty, young George showed a keen interest in plants and nature. His adoptive mother Susan encouraged his education, and he attended a series of schools for African American children in Missouri.

In the late 1870s, Carver left Missouri to pursue higher education. He faced numerous obstacles due to racial discrimination, but his persistence paid off. Carver became the first African American student at

Carver taught there for 47 years, developing the department into a strong research center and working with two additional college presidents during his tenure. He taught methods of crop rotation, introduced several alternative cash crops for farmers that would also improve the soil of areas heavily cultivated in cotton, initiated research into crop products (chemurgy), and taught generations of black students farming techniques for self-sufficiency.

This work, and especially his speaking to a national conference of the Peanut Growers Association in 1920 and in testimony before Congress in 1921 to support passage of a tariff on imported peanuts, brought him wide publicity and increasing renown. In these years, he became one of the most well-known African Americans of his time.