George Washington Carver

American botanist and inventor

"George Carver" redirects here. For other people of the same name, see George Carver (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with George Washington.

George Washington Carver

File:George Washington Carver c1910 - Restoration.jpg
Born| c. 1864

Diamond, Missouri, U.S.

Died| January 5, 1943(1943-01-05) (aged 78–79)

Tuskegee, Alabama, U.S.

Resting place| Tuskegee University
Alma mater| Iowa State University
Awards| Spingarn Medal (1923)
Signature
File:Signature of George Washington Carver, from June 1922 Tuskegee Institute meteorological record.png

George Washington Carver (c. 1864[1] – January 5, 1943) was an American agricultural scientist and inventor who promoted alternative crops to cotton and methods to prevent soil depletion.[2] He was the most prominent black scientist of the early 20th century.

While a professor at Tuskegee Institute, Carver developed techniques to improve soils depleted by repeated plantings of cotton. He wanted poor farmers to grow other crops, such as peanuts and sweet potatoes, as a source of their own food and to improve their quality of life. The most popular of his 44 practical bulletins for farmers contained 105 food recipes using peanuts. Although he spent years developing and promoting numerous products made from peanuts, none became commercially successful.[3]

Apart from his work to improve the lives of farmers, Carver was also a leader in promoting environmentalism.[4] He received numerous honors for his work, including the Spingarn Medal of the NAACP. In an era of high racial polarization, his fame reached beyond the black community. He was widely recognized and praised in the white community for his many achievements and talents. In 1941, Time magazine dubbed Carver a "Black Leonardo".[5]

Color film of Carver shot in 1937 at the Tuskegee Institute by African American surgeon Allen Alexander was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2019.[6][7] The 12 minutes of footage includes Carver in his apartment, office and laboratory, as well as images of him tending flowers and displaying his paintings.

## Contents

* 1 Early years
* 2 College education
* 3 Tuskegee Institute
* 4 Rise to fame
* 5 Life while famous
* 6 Relationships
* 7 Death
* 8 Personal life
* 8.1 Voice pitch
* 8.2 Christianity
* 9 Honors
* 10 Legacy
* 11 Reputed inventions
* 11.1 Peanut products
* 11.2 Sweet potato products
* 12 Carver bulletins
* 13 See also
* 14 Citations
* 15 General references
* 15.1 Scholarly studies
* 15.2 Popular works
* 16 Further reading
* 17 External links
* 17.1 Archival collections
* 17.2 Other
* 17.3 Print publications

## Early years[edit | edit source]

File:Moses Carver Farm (7100120493).jpg

The farm house of Moses Carver (built in 1881), near the place where George Carver lived as a youth.

Carver was born into slavery, in Diamond Grove (now Diamond), Newton County, Missouri, near Crystal Place, sometime in the mid-1860s. The date of his birth is uncertain and was not known to Carver; but it was before slavery was abolished in Missouri, which occurred in January 1865, during the American Civil War. His enslaver, Moses Carver, was a German American immigrant, who had purchased George's parents, Mary and Giles, from William P. McGinnis on October 9, 1855, for $700.[8][1]

Giles died before George was born and when he was a week old, he, his sister, and his mother were kidnapped by night raiders from Arkansas. George's brother, James, was rushed to safety from the kidnappers. The kidnappers sold the trio in Kentucky. Moses Carver hired John Bentley to find them, but he found only the infant George. Moses negotiated with the raiders to gain the boy's return, and rewarded Bentley. After slavery was abolished, Moses Carver and his wife, Susan, raised George and his older brother, James, as their own children. They encouraged George to continue his intellectual pursuits, and "Aunt Susan" taught him the basics of reading and writing.[9]

Black people were not allowed at the public school in Diamond Grove. George decided to go to a school for black children 10 miles (16 km) south, in Neosho. When he reached the town, he found the school closed for the night. He slept in a nearby barn. By his own account, the next morning he met a kind woman, Mariah Watkins, from whom he wished to rent a room. When he identified himself as "Carver's George", as he had done his whole life, she replied that from now on his name was "George Carver". George liked Mariah Watkins, and her words, "You must learn all you can, then go back out into the world and give your learning back to the people", made a great impression on him.[10]

At age 13, because he wanted to attend the academy there, he moved to the home of another foster family, in Fort Scott, Kansas. After witnessing the killing of a black man by a group of whites, Carver left the city. He attended a series of schools before earning his diploma at Minneapolis High School in Minneapolis, Kansas.

During his time spent in Minneapolis there was another George Carver in town, which caused confusion over receiving mail. Carver chose a middle initial at random, and began requesting letters to him be addressed to George W. Carver. Someone once asked if the "W" stood for Washington, and Carver grinned and said "Why not?" But he never used Washington as his middle name, and signed his name as either George W. Carver or simply George Carver.[11]

## College education[edit | edit source]

File:Carver1web.jpg

At work in his laboratory

Carver applied to several colleges before being accepted at Highland University in Highland, Kansas. When he arrived, however, they refused to let him attend because of his race.[12][13] In August 1886, Carver traveled by wagon with J. F. Beeler from Highland to Eden Township in Ness County, Kansas.[14] He homesteaded a claim[15] near Beeler, where he maintained a small conservatory of plants and flowers and a geological collection. He manually plowed 17 acres (69,000 m2) of the claim, planting rice, corn, Indian corn and garden produce, as well as various fruit trees, forest trees, and shrubbery. He also earned money by odd jobs in town and worked as a ranch hand.[14]

In early 1888, Carver obtained a $300 loan at the Bank of Ness City for education. By June he left the area.[14] In 1890, Carver started studying art and piano at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa.[16] His art teacher, Etta Budd, recognized Carver's talent for painting flowers and plants; she encouraged him to study botany at Iowa State Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) in Ames.[16]

When he began there in 1891, he was the first black student at Iowa State.[17] Carver's Bachelor's thesis for a degree in Agriculture was "Plants as Modified by Man", dated 1894.[18][19] Iowa State University professors Joseph Budd and Louis Pammel convinced Carver to continue there for his master's degree.[17] Carver did research at the Iowa Experiment Station under Pammel during the next two years. His work at the experiment station in plant pathology and mycology first gained him national recognition and respect as a botanist. Carver received his Master of Science degree in 1896.[19] Carver taught as the first black faculty member at Iowa State.

Despite occasionally being addressed as "doctor", Carver never received an official doctorate, and in a personal communication with Pammel, he noted that it was a "misnomer", given to him by others due to his abilities and their assumptions about his education.[20] With that said, both Simpson College and Selma University awarded him honorary doctorates of science in his lifetime.[20][21] Iowa State later awarded him a doctorate of humane letters posthumously in 1994.[22]

## Tuskegee Institute[edit | edit source]

File:George Washington Carver, ca. 1902.jpg

George Washington Carver (front row, center) poses with fellow faculty of Tuskegee Institute in this c. 1902 photograph taken by Frances Benjamin Johnston.

In 1896, Booker T. Washington, the first principal and president of the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University), invited Carver to head its Agriculture Department. 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.

Carver designed a mobile classroom to take education out to farmers. He called it a "Jesup wagon" after the New York financier and philanthropist Morris Ketchum Jesup, who provided funding to support the program.[23]

To recruit Carver to Tuskegee, Washington gave him an above average salary and two rooms for his personal use, although both concessions were resented by some other faculty. Because he had earned a master's in a scientific field from a "white" institution, some faculty perceived him as arrogant.[24] Unmarried faculty members normally had to share rooms, with two to a room, in the spartan early days of the institute.

One of Carver's duties was to administer the Agricultural Experiment Station farms. He had to manage the production and sale of farm products to generate revenue for the institute. He soon proved to be a poor administrator. In 1900, Carver complained that the physical work and the letter-writing required were too much.[25] In 1904, an Institute committee reported that Carver's reports on yields from the poultry yard were exaggerated, and Washington confronted Carver about the issue. Carver replied in writing, "Now to be branded as a liar and party to such hellish deception it is more than I can bear, and if your committee feel that I have willfully lied or [was] party to such lies as were told my resignation is at your disposal."[26] During Washington's last five years at Tuskegee, Carver submitted or threatened his resignation several times: when the administration reorganized the agriculture programs,[27] when he disliked a teaching assignment,[28] to manage an experiment station elsewhere,[29] and when he did not get summer teaching assignments in 1913–14.[30][31] In each case, Washington smoothed things over.

File:George Washington Carver by Frances Benjamin Johnston.jpg

Photograph of George Washington Carver taken by Frances Benjamin Johnston in 1906.

Carver started his academic career as a researcher and teacher. In 1911, Washington wrote a letter to him complaining that Carver had not followed orders to plant particular crops at the experiment station. This revealed Washington's micro-management of Carver's department, which he had headed for more than 10 years by then. Washington at the same time refused Carver's requests for a new laboratory, research supplies for his exclusive use, and respite from teaching classes. Washington praised Carver's abilities in teaching and original research but said about his administrative skills:

> When it comes to the organization of classes, the ability required to secure a properly organized and large school or section of a school, you are wanting in ability. When it comes to the matter of practical farm managing which will secure definite, practical, financial results, you are wanting again in ability.

In 1911, Carver complained that his laboratory had not received the equipment which Washington had promised 11 months before. He also complained about Institute committee meetings.[32] Washington praised Carver in his 1911 memoir, My Larger Education: Being Chapters from My Experience.[33] Washington called Carver "one of the most thoroughly scientific men of the Negro race with whom I am acquainted".[34] After Washington died in 1915, his successor made fewer demands on Carver for administrative tasks.

While a professor at Tuskegee, Carver joined the Gamma Sigma chapter of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity. He spoke at the 1930 Conclave that was held at Tuskegee, Alabama, in which he delivered a powerful and emotional speech to the men in attendance.[35]

From 1915 to 1923, Carver concentrated on researching and experimenting with new uses for peanuts, sweet potatoes, soybeans, pecans, and other crops, as well as having his assistants research and compile existing uses.[36] 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.

## Rise to fame[edit | edit source]

File:GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER - ONE OF AMERICA'S GREAT SCIENTISTS - NARA - 535694.jpg

"One of America's great scientists" - U.S. World War II poster circa 1943

Carver developed techniques to improve soils depleted by repeated plantings of cotton. Together with other agricultural experts, he urged farmers to restore nitrogen to their soils by practicing systematic crop rotation: alternating cotton crops with plantings of sweet potatoes or legumes (such as peanuts, soybeans and cowpeas). These crops both restored nitrogen to the soil and were good for human consumption. Following the crop rotation practice resulted in improved cotton yields and gave farmers alternative cash crops. To train farmers to successfully rotate and cultivate the new crops, Carver developed an agricultural extension program for Alabama that was similar to the one at Iowa State. To encourage better nutrition in the South, he widely distributed recipes using the alternative crops.

Additionally, he founded an industrial research laboratory, where he and assistants worked to popularize the new crops by developing hundreds of applications for them. They did original research as well as promoting applications and recipes, which they collected from others. Carver distributed his information as agricultural bulletins.

File:George Washington Carver-peanut specimen.jpeg

Peanut specimen collected by Carver

Carver's work was known by officials in the national capital before he became a public figure. President Theodore Roosevelt publicly admired his work. Former professors of Carver's from Iowa State University were appointed to positions as Secretary of Agriculture: James Wilson, a former dean and professor of Carver's, served from 1897 to 1913. Henry Cantwell Wallace served from 1921 to 1924. He knew Carver personally because his son Henry A. Wallace and the researcher were friends.[37] The younger Wallace served as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture from 1933 to 1940, and as Franklin Delano Roosevelt's vice president from 1941 to 1945.

The American industrialist, farmer, and inventor William C. Edenborn of Winn Parish, Louisiana, grew peanuts on his demonstration farm. He consulted with Carver.[38]

In 1916, Carver was made a member of the Royal Society of Arts in England, one of only a handful of Americans at that time to receive this honor. Carver's promotion of peanuts gained him the most notice.

By 1920, the U.S. peanut farmers were being undercut by low prices on imported peanuts from the Republic of China.[citation needed] In 1921, peanut farmers and industry representatives planned to appear at Congressional hearings to ask for a tariff. Based on the quality of Carver's presentation at their convention, they asked the African-American professor to testify on the tariff issue before the Ways and Means Committee of the United States House of Representatives. Due to segregation, it was highly unusual for an African American to appear as an expert witness at Congress representing European-American industry and farmers. Southern congressmen, reportedly shocked at Carver's arriving to testify, were said to have mocked him.[citation needed] As he talked about the importance of the peanut and its uses for American agriculture, the committee members repeatedly extended the time for his testimony. The Fordney–McCumber Tariff of 1922 was passed including one on imported peanuts. Carver's testifying to Congress made him widely known as a public figure.[citation needed]

## Life while famous[edit | edit source]

File:George Washington Carver-crop.jpg

United States Farm Security Administration portrait, March 1942

During the last two decades of his life, Carver seemed to enjoy his celebrity status. He was often on the road promoting Tuskegee University, peanuts, and racial harmony. Although he only published six agricultural bulletins after 1922, he published articles in peanut industry journals and wrote a syndicated newspaper column, "Professor Carver's Advice". Business leaders came to seek his help, and he often responded with free advice. Three American presidents—Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge and Franklin Roosevelt—met with him, and the Crown Prince of Sweden studied with him for three weeks. From 1923 to 1933, Carver toured white Southern colleges for the Commission on Interracial Cooperation.[36]

With his increasing notability, Carver became the subject of biographies and articles. Raleigh H. Merritt contacted him for his biography published in 1929. Merritt wrote:

> At present not a great deal has been done to utilize Dr. Carver's discoveries commercially. He says that he is merely scratching the surface of scientific investigations of the possibilities of the peanut and other Southern products.[39]

In 1932, the writer James Saxon Childers wrote that Carver and his peanut products were almost solely responsible for the rise in U.S. peanut production after the boll weevil devastated the American cotton crop beginning about 1892. His article, "A Boy Who Was Traded for a Horse" (1932), in The American Magazine, and its 1937 reprint in Reader's Digest, contributed to this myth about Carver's influence. Other popular media tended to exaggerate Carver's impact on the peanut industry.[40]

From 1933 to 1935, Carver worked to develop peanut oil massages to treat infantile paralysis (polio).[36] Ultimately, researchers found that the massages, not the peanut oil, provided the benefits of maintaining some mobility to paralyzed limbs.

From 1935 to 1937, Carver participated in the USDA Disease Survey. Carver had specialized in plant diseases and mycology for his master's degree.

In 1937, Carver attended two chemurgy conferences, an emerging field in the 1930s, during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, concerned with developing new products from crops.[36] He was invited by Henry Ford to speak at the conference held in Dearborn, Michigan, and they developed a friendship. That year Carver's health declined, and Ford later installed an elevator at the Tuskegee dormitory where Carver lived, so that the elderly man would not have to climb stairs.[5][41]

Carver had been frugal in his life, and in his seventies he established a legacy by creating a museum of his work, as well as the George Washington Carver Foundation at Tuskegee in 1938 to continue agricultural research. He donated nearly US$60,000 (equivalent to $1,155,035 in 2021) in his savings to create the foundation.[41]

Carver headed the modern organic movement in the southern agricultural system.[42] Carver's background for his interest in organic farming sprouted from his father being killed during the Civil War, and when his mother was kidnapped by Confederate slave raiders. Now an orphan, Carver found comfort in botany when he was just 11 years old in Kansas. Carver learned about herbal medicine, natural pesticides, and natural fertilizers that yielded plentiful crops from his caretaker. When crops and house plants were dying, he would use his knowledge and go and nurse them back to health. As a teenager, he was termed the "plant doctor".

When his study about infection in soybean reached Booker T. Washington, he invited him to come and teach at the Tuskegee Agricultural school.

Although the emancipation allowed Black families 40 acres and a mule, President Johnson revoked this and gave the land to white plantation owners instead. This prompted Black farmers to exchange what was once their land, and in turn, a small part of the land's harvest. This led to sharecropping.[43] Carver soon realized that farmers were not obtaining enough food to survive, and how the industrialization of cotton had contaminated the soil. Carver wanted to find a way to organically transform Alabama's failing soil. He found that alternating nitrogen-rich crops would let the soil get back to its natural state. Keeping crops like sweet potatoes, peanuts, and cowpeas would produce more food surplus and different types of food for farmers. Carver worked to pioneer organic fertilizers like swamp muck and compost for the farmers to use. These fertilizers were more sustainable to the planet and helped farmers to spend less money on fertilizers since they were recycling products.[44] Carver pushed for woodland preservation, to help improve the quality of the topsoil. He urged farmers to feed their hogs acorns. The acorns contained natural pesticides and feeding them acorns was cheaper for the farms too.[45] Carver's efforts towards the holistic and organic approach are still in practice today. In his research, Carver discovered Permaculture. Permaculture could be used to produce carbon from the atmosphere, produce a higher quantity of crops, and let crops flourish despite global warming. President Biden realized the success of Permaculture as described by Carver, and is now using it in sustainable agriculture in his climate policy.[citation needed]

## Relationships[edit | edit source]

File:AUSTIN CURTIS - SCIENTIST SUCCESSOR TO DR. CARVER - NARA - 535696.jpg

"Austin Curtis - Scientist successor to Dr. Carver", cartoon by C.H. Alston

Carver never married. At age 40, he began a courtship with Sarah L. Hunt, an elementary school teacher and the sister-in-law of Warren Logan, Treasurer of Tuskegee Institute. This lasted three years until she took a teaching job in California.[46] In her 2015 biography, Christina Vella reviews his relationships and suggests that Carver was bisexual and constrained by mores of his historic period.[47]

When he was 70, Carver established a friendship and research partnership with the scientist Austin W. Curtis Jr. This young black man, a graduate of Cornell University, had some teaching experience before coming to Tuskegee. Carver bequeathed to Curtis his royalties from an authorized 1943 biography by Rackham Holt.[48] After Carver died in 1943, Curtis was fired from Tuskegee Institute. He left Alabama and resettled in Detroit. There he manufactured and sold peanut-based personal care products.[49]

## Death[edit | edit source]

File:George W Carver - NARA - 559197.jpg

Painting by Betsy Graves Reyneau

Upon returning home one day, Carver took a bad fall down a flight of stairs; he was found unconscious by a maid who took him to a hospital. Carver died January 5, 1943, at the age of 79 from complications (anemia) resulting from this fall. He was buried next to Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee University. Due to his frugality, Carver's life savings totaled $60,000, all of which he donated in his last years and at his death to the Carver Museum and to the George Washington Carver Foundation.[50]

On his grave was written, "He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world."[51]

## Personal life[edit | edit source]

### Voice pitch[edit | edit source]

Even as an adult Carver spoke with a high pitch. Historian Linda O. McMurry noted that he "was a frail and sickly child" who suffered "from a severe case of whooping cough and frequent bouts of what was called croup".[52] McMurry contested the diagnosis of croup, holding rather that "His stunted growth and apparently impaired vocal cords suggest instead tubercular or pneumococcal infection. Frequent infections of that nature could have caused the growth of polyps on the larynx and may have resulted from a gamma globulin deficiency. ... until his death the high pitch of his voice startled all who met him, and he suffered from frequent chest congestion and loss of voice."[52]

### Christianity[edit | edit source]

Carver believed he could have faith both in God and science and integrated them into his life. He testified on many occasions that his faith in Jesus was the only mechanism by which he could effectively pursue and perform the art of science.[53] Carver became a Christian when he was still a young boy, as he wrote in connection to his conversion in 1931:[54]

> I was just a mere boy when converted, hardly ten years old. There isn't much of a story to it. God just came into my heart one afternoon while I was alone in the 'loft' of our big barn while I was shelling corn to carry to the mill to be ground into meal.

> A dear little white boy, one of our neighbors, about my age came by one Saturday morning, and in talking and playing he told me he was going to Sunday school tomorrow morning. I was eager to know what a Sunday school was. He said they sang hymns and prayed. I asked him what prayer was and what they said. I do not remember what he said; only remember that as soon as he left I climbed up into the 'loft,' knelt down by the barrel of corn and prayed as best I could. I do not remember what I said. I only recall that I felt so good that I prayed several times before I quit.

> My brother and myself were the only colored children in that neighborhood and of course, we could not go to church or Sunday school, or school of any kind.

> That was my simple conversion, and I have tried to keep the faith.

> — G. W. Carver; Letter to Isabelle Coleman; July 24, 1931

He was not expected to live past his 21st birthday due to failing health. He lived well past the age of 21, and his belief deepened as a result.[34] Throughout his career, he always found friendship with other Christians. He relied on them especially when criticized by the scientific community and media regarding his research methodology.[55]

Carver viewed faith in Jesus Christ as a means of destroying both barriers of racial disharmony and social stratification.[56] He was as concerned with his students' character development as he was with their intellectual development. He compiled a list of "eight cardinal virtues" whose possession defines "a lady or a gentleman":

File:George Washington Carver-Bush Gardens Monument.jpg

A monument to Carver at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis

>   * Be clean both inside and out.
>   * Who neither looks up to the rich nor down on the poor.
>   * Who loses, if needs be, without squealing.
>   * Who wins without bragging.
>   * Who is always considerate of women, children and old people.
>   * Who is too brave to lie.
>   * Who is too generous to cheat.
>   * Who take his share of the world and lets other people have theirs.[57]

Beginning in 1906 at Tuskegee, Carver led a Bible class on Sundays for several students at their request. He regularly portrayed stories by acting them out.[58] He responded to critics with this: "When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world."[59]

## Honors[edit | edit source]

* 1923, Spingarn Medal from the NAACP, awarded annually for outstanding achievement.[36]
* 1928, honorary doctorate from Simpson College
* 1939, the Roosevelt Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Southern Agriculture
* 1940, Carver established the George Washington Carver Foundation at the Tuskegee Institute.
* 1941, The George Washington Carver Museum was dedicated at the Tuskegee Institute.
* 1942, Ford built a replica of Carver's birth cabin at the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn as a tribute.
* 1942, Ford dedicated a laboratory in Dearborn named after Carver.
* 1943, Liberty ship SS George Washington Carver launched
* 1947, George Washington Carver Area High School, named in his honor is opened by the Chicago Public Schools in the Riverdale/Far South Side area of Chicago, Illinois, United States.
* 1950, George Washington Carver State Park named
* 1951–1954, U.S. Mint features Carver on a 50 cents silver commemorative coin
* 1965, Ballistic missile submarine USS George Washington Carver (SSBN-656) launched.
* 1969, Iowa State University constructs Carver Hall in honor of Carver—a graduate of the university.[60]
* 1943?, the US Congress designated January 5, the anniversary of his death, as George Washington Carver Recognition Day.[61][62]
* 1999, USDA names a portion of its Beltsville, Maryland campus the George Washington Carver Center.[63]
* 2002, Iowa Award, the state's highest citizen award.[64]
* 2004, George Washington Carver Bridge, Des Moines, Iowa
* 2007, the Missouri Botanical Gardens has a garden area named in his honor, with a commemorative statue and material about his work
* Willowbrook Neighborhood Park in Willowbrook, California was renamed George Washington Carver Park in his honor.[65]
* Schools named for Carver include the George Washington Carver Elementary School of the Compton Unified School District in Los Angeles County, California,[66] the George Washington Carver School of Arts and Science of the Sacramento City Unified School District in Sacramento, California,[67] and the Dr. George Washington Carver Elementary School, a Newark public school in Newark, New Jersey.[68]
* Taxa named after him include: Colletotrichum carveri and Metasphaeria carveri, both named by Job Bicknell Ellis and Benjamin Matlack Everhart in 1902;[69] Cercospora carveriana, named by Pier Andrea Saccardo and Domenico Saccardo in 1906;[70] Taphrina carveri named by Anna Eliza Jenkins in 1939;[71] and Pestalotia carveri, named by E. F. Guba in 1961.[72]

## Legacy[edit | edit source]

File:Stamp US 1948 3c Carver.jpg

1948 US postage stamp

A movement to establish a U.S. national monument to Carver began before his death. Because of World War II, such non-war expenditures had been banned by presidential order. Missouri senator Harry S. Truman sponsored a bill in favor of a monument. In a committee hearing on the bill, one supporter said:

> The bill is not simply a momentary pause on the part of busy men engaged in the conduct of the war, to do honor to one of the truly great Americans of this country, but it is in essence a blow against the Axis, it is in essence a war measure in the sense that it will further unleash and release the energies of roughly 15,000,000 Negro people in this country for full support of our war effort.[36]

The bill passed unanimously in both houses.

On July 14, 1943,[73] President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated $30,000 for the George Washington Carver National Monument west-southwest of Diamond, Missouri, the area where Carver had spent time in his childhood. This was the first national monument dedicated to an African American and the first to honor someone other than a president. The 210-acre (0.8 km2) national monument complex includes a bust of Carver, a 3⁄4-mile nature trail, a museum, the 1881 Moses Carver house, and the Carver cemetery. The national monument opened in July 1953.

In December 1947, a fire broke out in the Carver Museum, and much of the collection was damaged. Time magazine reported that all but 3 of the 48 Carver paintings at the museum were destroyed. His best-known painting, displayed at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, depicts a yucca and cactus. This canvas survived and has undergone conservation. It is displayed together with several of his other paintings.[74]

File:1951 Carver-Washington half dollar commemorative, obverse.jpg

1951 Carver-Washington commemorative half dollar

Carver was featured on U.S. 1948 commemorative stamps. From 1951 to 1954, he was depicted on the commemorative Carver-Washington half dollar coin along with Booker T. Washington. A second stamp honoring Carver, of face value 32¢, was issued on February 3, 1998, as part of the Celebrate the Century stamp sheet series. Two ships, the Liberty ship SS George Washington Carver and the nuclear submarine USS George Washington Carver (SSBN-656), were named in his honor.

In 1977, Carver was elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans. In 1990, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. In 1994, Iowa State University awarded Carver a Doctor of Humane Letters. In 2000, Carver was a charter inductee in the USDA Hall of Heroes as the "Father of Chemurgy".[75]

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed George Washington Carver as one of 100 Greatest African Americans.[76]

In 2005, Carver's research at the Tuskegee Institute was designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society.[77] On February 15, 2005, an episode of Modern Marvels included scenes from within Iowa State University's Food Sciences Building and about Carver's work. In 2005, the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, Missouri, opened a George Washington Carver garden in his honor, which includes a life-size statue of him.

Many institutions continue to honor George Washington Carver. Dozens of elementary schools and high schools are named after him. National Basketball Association star David Robinson and his wife, Valerie, founded an academy named after Carver; it opened on September 17, 2001, in San Antonio, Texas.[58] The Carver Community Cultural Center, a historic center located in San Antonio, is named for him.

## Reputed inventions[edit | edit source]

Carver was given credit in popular folklore for many inventions that did not come out of his lab. Three patents (one for cosmetics; US 1522176, issued January 6, 1925 , and two for paints and stains; US 1541478, issued June 9, 1925 and US 1632365, issued June 14, 1927 ) were issued to Carver in 1925 to 1927; however, they were not commercially successful.[78] Aside from these patents and some recipes for food, Carver left no records of formulae or procedures for making his products. He did not keep a laboratory notebook. Mackintosh notes that, "Carver did not explicitly claim that he had personally discovered all the peanut attributes and uses he cited, but he said nothing to prevent his audiences from drawing the inference."[79] Carver's research was intended to produce replacements from common crops for commercial products, which were generally beyond the budget of the small one-horse farmer. A misconception grew that his research on products for subsistence farmers were developed by others commercially to change Southern agriculture.[80][81] Carver's work to provide small farmers with resources for more independence from the cash economy foreshadowed the "appropriate technology" work of E. F. Schumacher.

### Peanut products[edit | edit source]

Dennis Keeney, director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, wrote in the Leopold Letter (newsletter):

> Carver worked on improving soils, growing crops with low inputs, and using species that fixed nitrogen (hence, the work on the cowpea and the peanut). Carver wrote in 'The Need of Scientific Agriculture in the South': "The virgin fertility of our soils and the vast amount of unskilled labor have been more of a curse than a blessing to agriculture. This exhaustive system for cultivation, the destruction of forest, the rapid and almost constant decomposition of organic matter, have made our agricultural problem one requiring more brains than of the North, East or West.[82]

Carver worked for years to create a company to market his products. The most important was the Carver Penol Company, which sold a mixture of creosote and peanuts as a patent medicine for respiratory diseases such as tuberculosis. Sales were lackluster and the product was ineffective according to the Food and Drug Administration.[83] Other ventures were The Carver Products Company and the Carvoline Company. Carvoline Antiseptic Hair Dressing was a mix of peanut oil and lanolin. Carvoline Rubbing Oil was a peanut oil for massages.

Carver is often mistakenly credited with the invention of peanut butter.[84] By the time Carver published "How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it For Human Consumption" in 1916,[85] many methods of preparation of peanut butter had been developed or patented by various pharmacists, doctors and food scientists working in the US and Canada.[86][87][88] The Aztecs were known to have made peanut butter from ground peanuts as early as the 15th century. Canadian pharmacist Marcellus Gilmore Edson was awarded U.S. Patent 306,727 (for its manufacture) in 1884, 12 years before Carver began his work at Tuskegee.[89][90]

### Sweet potato products[edit | edit source]

Carver is also associated with developing sweet potato products. In his 1922 sweet potato bulletin, Carver listed a few dozen recipes, "many of which I have copied verbatim from Bulletin No. 129, U. S. Department of Agriculture".[91] Carver's records included the following sweet potato products: 73 dyes, 17 wood fillers, 14 candies, 5 library pastes, 5 breakfast foods, 4 starches, 4 flours, and 3 molasses.[92] He also had listings for vinegars, dry coffee and instant coffee, candy, after-dinner mints, orange drops, and lemon drops.

## Carver bulletins[edit | edit source]

During his more than four decades at Tuskegee, Carver's official published work consisted mainly of 44 practical bulletins for farmers.[93] His first bulletin in 1898 was on feeding acorns to farm animals. His final bulletin in 1943 was about the peanut. He also published six bulletins on sweet potatoes, five on cotton, and four on cowpeas. Some other individual bulletins dealt with alfalfa, wild plum, tomato, ornamental plants, corn, poultry, dairying, hogs, preserving meats in hot weather, and nature study in schools.

His most popular bulletin, How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption, was first published in 1916[94] and was reprinted many times. It gave a short overview of peanut crop production and contained a list of recipes from other agricultural bulletins, cookbooks, magazines, and newspapers, such as the Peerless Cookbook, Good Housekeeping, and Berry's Fruit Recipes. Carver's was far from the first American agricultural bulletin devoted to peanuts,[95][96][97][98][99] but his bulletins did seem to be more popular and widespread than previous ones.

The standard author abbreviation Carver is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[100]

## See also[edit | edit source]

* African-American history
* Carver College
* Carver Academy, Texas
* Carver Court, a historic housing development in Chester County, Pennsylvania
* George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology, a public high school in Towson, Maryland
* Carver High School (disambiguation)
* Carver Junior College, Cocoa, Florida, closed in 1963
* Carver Middle School (disambiguation)
* List of people on stamps of the United States

## Citations[edit | edit source]

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2. ^ "George Washington Carver". Live Science. December 7, 2013. Archived from the original on December 15, 2021. Retrieved January 16, 2019.
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10. ^ Abrams, Dennis (2008). George Washington Carver: Scientist and Educator. Chelsea House Publications. pp. 16. ISBN 978-0791097175.
11. ^ Elliot, Lawrence, Beyond Fame or Fortune (Book Section), Reader's Digest, May 1965, page 272
12. ^ Burgan, Michael (2007). George Washington Carver: Scientist, Inventor, and Teacher. Minneapolis, MN: Compass Point Books. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-7565-1882-0.
13. ^ Kremer, Gary R. (2011). George Washington Carver: A Biography. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. p. 21\. ISBN 978-0-313-34796-2.
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27. ^ Harlan, Volume 10, p. 480.
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31. ^ Harlan, Vol. 13, p. 35.
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38. ^ "Greggory E. Davies, William Edenborn of Winn Parish, LA". files.usgwarchives.org. Archived from the original on March 16, 2012. Retrieved October 30, 2010.
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40. ^ "Peanut Man". Time. June 14, 1937. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved August 10, 2008.
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42. ^ Hersey, Mark (April 1, 2006). "Hints and Suggestions to Farmers: George Washington Carver and Rural Conservation in the South". Environmental History. 11 (2): 239–268. doi:10.1093/envhis/11.2.239. ISSN 1084-5453. Archived from the original on March 11, 2022. Retrieved November 29, 2021.
43. ^ Coxe., Toogood, Anna (1973). George Washington Carver National Monument, Diamond, Missouri : historic resource study and administrative history. Denver Service Center, Historic Preservation Team, National Park Service. OCLC 5006777. Archived from the original on March 11, 2022. Retrieved November 29, 2021.
44. ^ Wedin, Carolyn (February 9, 2009), "Carver, George Washington", African American Studies Center, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.45361, ISBN 978-0-19-530173-1, archived from the original on March 11, 2022, retrieved November 29, 2021
45. ^ D., Hersey, Mark (2011). My work is that of conservation : an environmental biography of George Washington Carver. Univ. of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-3088-4. OCLC 734062445. Archived from the original on March 11, 2022. Retrieved November 29, 2021.
46. ^ Kremer, Gary R., George Washington Carver: A Biography, Greenwood, 2011, ISBN 0313347964, p. 68
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48. ^ Rackham Holt, George Washington Carver: An American Biography, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran and Company, 1943. Quote: "He [Carver] believed that there was something providential in the coming of this young man [Austin], so intensely serious about his work and extremely competent at it, who was at the same time a genial companion; he was proud of him and loved and depended on him as his own son ... And the affection was returned in full measure. Mr. Curtis accompanied him everywhere, seeing to his comfort, shielding him from intrusion, and acting as his official mouthpiece."
49. ^ On Curtis' later life, see "Austin W. Curtis Interviewed by Toby Fishbein in Detroit, Michigan, March 3, 1979": Transcript in Iowa State University Special Collections, George Washington Carver File, Box 2, RS: 21/7/2.
50. ^ "GWC | Tour Of His Life |Page 6". Archived from the original on March 29, 2009. Retrieved April 17, 2008.
51. ^ "George Washington Carver". www.samford.edu. Archived from the original on December 15, 2021. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
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53. ^ Man of science-and of God Archived October 28, 2017, at the Wayback Machine from The New American (January 2004), via TheFreeLibrary.com.
54. ^ Carver, George Washington; Kremer, Gary R. (ed.) George Washington Carver in his own words Archived May 15, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. University of Missouri Press. February 1, 1991, p. 128.
55. ^ "Wilson L. Newman correspondence with George Washington Carver, 1926–1943". Archived from the original on August 8, 2014. Retrieved August 3, 2014.
56. ^ "Quotes From Dr. Carver Page 2". nps.gov. National Park Service. Archived from the original on July 8, 2009.
57. ^ Letter to a student, January 9, 1922, quoted in George Washington Carver, Gary R. Kremer, George Washington Carver: In His Own Words, 1987, ISBN 0826207855, p. 85
58. ^ a b History Archived June 7, 2012, at the Wayback Machine from the Carver Academy website
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64. ^ Iowa Official Register (2013–2014) (PDF). Iowa General Assembly. 2014. p. 437\. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 5, 2021. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
65. ^ "George Washington Carver Park". Los Angeles County, California Department of Parks and Recreation. Archived from the original on March 11, 2015. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
66. ^ "Welcome to Carver Elementary School". Compton Unified School District. Archived from the original on April 15, 2015. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
67. ^ "Who Is George Washington Carver?". Sacramento City Unified School District. Archived from the original on March 30, 2015. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
68. ^ "Dr. George Washington Carver: Where Achievement is Realistic, Obtainable & Infinite!". Newark Public Schools. Archived from the original on February 23, 2017. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
69. ^ Ellis, J. B.; Everhart, B. M. (1902). "New Alabama Fungi". The Journal of Mycology. 8 (2): 62–73. doi:10.2307/3752297. JSTOR 3752297.
70. ^ Saccardo, P. A.; Saccardo, D. (1906). Sylloge fungorum omnium hucusque cognitorum. Vol. 18\. Patavius: P. A. Saccardo. p. 607\. Archived from the original on November 7, 2017. Retrieved November 6, 2017.
71. ^ Jenkins, Anna E. (1939). "New species of Taphrina on red maple and on silver maple". Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences. 29 (5): 222–230. JSTOR 24529580. Archived from the original on November 7, 2017. Retrieved November 6, 2017.
72. ^ Collins, Daniel J.; Frederick, Lafayette; Warren, Herman; Rossman, Amy; Dominick, Shannon (2014). "Contributions of Dr. George Washington Carver to global food security: Historical reflections of Dr. Carver's Fungal Plant Disease Survey in the southeastern United States". APSnet Features. doi:10.1094/APSFeature-2014-02.
73. ^ "George Washington Carver National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)". Archived from the original on December 13, 2020. Retrieved July 12, 2005.
74. ^ "Change Without Revolution". Time. January 5, 1948. Archived from the original on October 21, 2007. Retrieved August 10, 2008.
75. ^ USDA Hall of Heroes Archived September 25, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
76. ^ Asante, Molefi Kete (2002). 100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Amherst, New York. Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-57392-963-8.
77. ^ Ginsberg, Judah (January 27, 2005). "George Washington Carver: Chemist, Teacher, Symbol". American Chemical Society. Archived from the original on November 7, 2012. Retrieved March 2, 2012.
78. ^ "George Washington Carver" Archived March 11, 2022, at the Wayback Machine. Inventors.about.com. Retrieved July 12, 2013.
79. ^ Mackintosh, Barry. 1977. "George Washington Carver and the Peanut", American Heritage. 28(5): 66–73.
80. ^ McMurry, L. O. 1981. George Washington Carver: Scientist and Symbol. New York, Oxford University Press.
81. ^ Smith, Andrew F. 2002. Peanuts: The Illustrious History of the Goober Pea. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
82. ^ Fishbein, Toby. "The Legacy of George Washington Carver" Archived 2018-02-05 at the Wayback Machine, Iowa State University Library.
83. ^ McMurry (1982). George Washington Carver. pp. 195–96. ISBN 9780195032055. Archived from the original on August 1, 2020. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
84. ^ National Peanut Board, Who Invented Peanut Butter?, archived from the original on November 25, 2016, retrieved November 24, 2016.
85. ^ "George Washington Carver" Archived November 1, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, National Peanut Board.
86. ^ "US Patent #306727". Archived from the original on April 5, 2017. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
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90. ^ "History of Peanut Butter" Archived July 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Peanut-butter.org. Retrieved July 12, 2013.
91. ^ "How the Farmer Can Save His Sweet Potatoes", Geo. W. Carver Archived June 5, 2013, at the Wayback Machine from the Texas A&M University website.
92. ^ Carver Sweet Potato Products Archived September 4, 2006, at the Wayback Machine from the Tuskegee University website.
93. ^ List of Bulletins by George Washington Carver Archived August 30, 2006, at the Wayback Machine from the Tuskegee University website
94. ^ Carver, George Washington. 1916. "How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption" Archived December 13, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Tuskegee Institute Experimental Station Bulletin 31.
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100. ^ International Plant Names Index.  Carver.

## General references[edit | edit source]

### Scholarly studies[edit | edit source]

* Hersey, Mark D. My Work Is That of Conservation: An Environmental Biography of George Washington Carver (University of Georgia Press; 2011) 306 pages.
* Hersey, Mark. "Hints and Suggestions to Farmers: George Washington Carver and Rural Conservation in the South". Environmental History 11#2 (2006): 239–268.
* Mackintosh, Barry. "George Washington Carver: The Making of a Myth". Journal of Southern History 42#4 (1976): 507–528. in JSTOR
* Barry Mackintosh, "George Washington Carver and the Peanut: New Light on a Much-loved Myth", American Heritage 28(5): 66–73, 1977.
* McMurry, L. O. "Carver, George Washington". American National Biography Online February 2000
* McMurry, Linda O. George Washington Carver: Scientist and Symbol (Oxford University Press, 1982). online; Google copy)

### Popular works[edit | edit source]

* Carver, George Washington. "1897 or Thereabouts: George Washington Carver's Own Brief History of His Life". George Washington Carver National Monument.
* Collins, David R. George Washington Carver: Man's Slave, God's Scientist, (Mott Media, 1981)
* William J. Federer, George Washington Carver: His Life & Faith in His Own Words, AmeriSearch (January 2003) ISBN 0-9653557-6-4
* Kremer, G. R. ed. George Washington Carver: In His Own Words, University of Missouri Press; 1987, Reprint edition (January 1991) ISBN 0-8262-0785-5 ISBN 978-0-8262-0785-2
* H. M. Morris, Men of Science, Men of God (1982)
* E. C. Barnett and D. Fisher, Scientists Who Believe (1984)

## Further reading[edit | edit source]

* Gray, James Marion. George Washington Carver. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Silver Burdett Press, 1991.
* Holt, Rackham. George Washington Carver: An American Biography, rev. ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1963.
* Kremer, Gary R. Race and Meaning: The African American Experience in Missouri, University of Missouri Press, 2014.
* McKissack, Pat, and Fredrick McKissack. George Washington Carver: The Peanut Scientist, rev. ed. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, 2002.
* Moore, Eva. The Story of George Washington Carver, New York: Scholastic, 1995.
* Vella, Christina. Carver, Louisiana State University Press, 2015.

## External links[edit | edit source]

File:Commons-logo.svg

Wikimedia Commons has media related to George Washington Carver.

Wikiquote has quotations related to George Washington Carver.

### Archival collections[edit | edit source]

* Guide to the George Washington Carver Letter to Dana H. Johnson. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
* Finding Aid to the George Washington Carver Collection. Special Collections Department, Iowa State University Library, Ames, Iowa.
* William and Annette Curtis collection of George Washington Carver items, MSS 6223 at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University

### Other[edit | edit source]

* National Park Service:

Legends of Tuskegee: George Washington Carver Archived April 13, 2015, at the Wayback Machine from the National Park Service
George Washington Carver National Monument from the National Park Service

* Carver Tribute from Tuskegee University
* The Legacy of George Washington Carver from Iowa State University
* National Historic Chemical Landmark from the American Chemical Society
* George Washington Carver Correspondence Collection Manuscript collection in Special Collections, National Agricultural Library.
* Biotechnology Organization Award
* A film clip 'American Day' Fete Biggest Patriotic Meeting In History, 1941/05/20 (1941) is available at the Internet Archive
* George Washington Carver Digital Collection, Iowa State University.
* George Washington Carver History
* Works by George Washington Carver at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) File:Speaker Icon.svg

### Print publications[edit | edit source]

* George Washington Carver. "How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption", Tuskegee Institute Experimental Station Bulletin 31.
* George Washington Carver. "How the Farmer Can Save His Sweet Potatoes and Ways of Preparing Them for the Table", Tuskegee Institute Experimental Station Bulletin 38, 1936.
* George Washington Carver. "How to Grow the Tomato and 115 Ways to Prepare it for the Table", Tuskegee Institute Experimental Station Bulletin 36, 1936.
* Peter D. Burchard, "George Washington Carver: For His Time and Ours", National Park Service: George Washington Carver National Monument. 2006.
* Louis R. Harlan (ed.), The Booker T. Washington Papers, Volume 4, pp. 127–128. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. 1975.
* Raleigh H. Merritt, From Captivity to Fame or the Life of George Washington Carver, Boston: Meador Publishing. 1929.
* George Washington Carver
* Mary Bagley, George Washington Carver: Biography, Inventions & Quotes (2013).

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* 1928: Charles W. Chesnutt
* 1929: Mordecai Wyatt Johnson
* 1930: Henry A. Hunt
* 1931: Richard Berry Harrison
* 1932: Robert Russa Moton
* 1933: Max Yergan
* 1934: William T. B. Williams
* 1935: Mary McLeod Bethune
* 1936: John Hope
* 1937: Walter Francis White
* 1938: no award
* 1939: Marian Anderson
* 1940: Louis T. Wright
* 1941: Richard Wright
* 1942: A. Philip Randolph
* 1943: William H. Hastie
* 1944: Charles R. Drew
* 1945: Paul Robeson
* 1946: Thurgood Marshall
* 1947: Percy Lavon Julian
* 1948: Channing Heggie Tobias
* 1949: Ralph Bunche
* 1950: Charles Hamilton Houston
* 1951: Mabel Keaton Staupers
* 1952: Harry T. Moore
* 1953: Paul R. Williams
* 1954: Theodore K. Lawless
* 1955: Carl J. Murphy
* 1956: Jackie Robinson
* 1957: Martin Luther King Jr.
* 1958: Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine
* 1959: Duke Ellington
* 1960: Langston Hughes
* 1961: Kenneth B. Clark
* 1962: Robert C. Weaver
* 1963: Medgar Evers
* 1964: Roy Wilkins
* 1965: Leontyne Price
* 1966: John H. Johnson
* 1967: Edward Brooke
* 1968: Sammy Davis Jr.
* 1969: Clarence Mitchell Jr.
* 1970: Jacob Lawrence
* 1971: Leon Sullivan
* 1972: Gordon Parks
* 1973: Wilson Riles
* 1974: Damon Keith
* 1975: no award
* 1976: Hank Aaron
* 1977: Alvin Ailey and Alex Haley
* 1978: no award
* 1979: Andrew Young and Rosa Parks
* 1980: Rayford Logan
* 1981: Coleman Young
* 1982: Benjamin Elijah Mays
* 1983: Lena Horne
* 1984: no award
* 1985: Tom Bradley and Bill Cosby
* 1986: Benjamin Hooks
* 1987: Percy Sutton
* 1988: Frederick D. Patterson
* 1989: Jesse Jackson
* 1990: Douglas Wilder
* 1991: Colin Powell
* 1992: Barbara Jordan
* 1993: Dorothy Height
* 1994: Maya Angelou
* 1995: John Hope Franklin
* 1996: A. Leon Higginbotham Jr.
* 1997: Carl Rowan
* 1998: Myrlie Evers-Williams
* 1999: Earl G. Graves Sr.
* 2000: Oprah Winfrey
* 2001: Vernon Jordan
* 2002: John Lewis
* 2003: Constance Baker Motley
* 2004: Robert L. Carter
* 2005: Oliver Hill
* 2006: Ben Carson
* 2007: John Conyers
* 2008: Ruby Dee
* 2009: Julian Bond
* 2010: Cicely Tyson
* 2011: Frankie Muse Freeman
* 2012: Harry Belafonte
* 2013: Jessye Norman
* 2014: Quincy Jones
* 2015: Sidney Poitier
* 2016: Nathaniel R. Jones
* 2017: no award
* 2018: Willie Brown
* 2019: Patrick Gaspard

* v
* t
* e

Booker T. Washington

Life|

* Tuskegee Institute
* George Washington Carver
* 1895 Atlanta Exposition Speech
* Atlanta Compromise
* National Negro Business League
* 1901 White House dinner
* Tuskegee Institute Silver Anniversary Lecture

Books|

* The Future of the American Negro (1899)
* Up from Slavery (1901)
* Character Building (1902)
* The Negro Problem (editor, 1903)
* Working with the Hands (1904)
* Tuskegee & Its People (1905)
* The Negro in the South (1907)

Honors|

* Booker T. Washington National Monument
* Booker T. Washington State Park (Tennessee)
* Booker T. Washington State Park (West Virginia)
* Booker Mountain
* SS Booker T. Washington
* Booker T. Washington Memorial half dollar
* Carver-Washington half dollar
* High Schools

Portrayals|

* A Guest of Honor (1903 opera)
* Booker (1984 film)
* Theodore Roosevelt (2022 miniseries)

Related|

* Fannie Smith Washington (first wife)
* Olivia A. Davidson (second wife)
* Margaret Murray Washington (third wife)
* Giles v. Harris

* v
* t
* e

African Americans

History|

* Timeline
* Abolitionism
* Afrocentrism
* American Civil War
* Atlantic slave trade
* Black genocide
* Black Lives Matter
* Brown v. Board of Education
* Children of the plantation
* Civil Rights Acts
* 1964
* Voting Rights Act of 1965
* 1968
* Civil rights movement
* 1865–1896
* 1896–1954
* 1954–1968
* Birmingham movement
* March on Washington
* Selma to Montgomery marches
* Post–civil rights era
* Cornerstone speech
* COVID-19 impact
* Dred Scott v. Sandford
* Free Negro
* Free people of color
* George Floyd protests
* Great Migration
* Second
* New
* Inauguration of Barack Obama 2009 / Inauguration of Barack Obama 2013
* Jim Crow laws
* Lynching
* Military history
* Nadir of American race relations
* The Negro Motorist Green Book
* Partus sequitur ventrem
* Plantations
* Plessy v. Ferguson
* Reconstruction Amendments
* Reconstruction era
* Redlining
* Separate but equal
* Slavery
* Treatment of slaves
* Tulsa race massacre
* Underground Railroad
* Women's suffrage movement

Culture|

* Afrofuturism
* Art
* Black mecca
* Businesses
* Dance
* Family structure
* Film
* Folktales
* Hair
* Harlem Renaissance
* New Negro
* Juneteenth
* Kwanzaa
* LGBT community
* Literature
* Music
* Musical theater
* Names
* Negro National Anthem
* Neighborhoods
* Newspapers
* Soul food
* Stereotypes
* Middle class
* Upper class

Notable people|

* Ralph Abernathy
* Maya Angelou
* Crispus Attucks
* James Baldwin
* James Bevel
* Julian Bond
* Amelia Boynton
* James Bradley
* Carol Moseley Braun
* Edward Brooke
* Blanche Bruce
* Ralph Bunche
* George Washington Carver
* Shirley Chisholm
* Claudette Colvin
* Frederick Douglass
* W. E. B. Du Bois
* Medgar Evers
* James Farmer
* Henry Highland Garnet
* Marcus Garvey
* Fannie Lou Hamer
* Kamala Harris
* Jimi Hendrix
* Jesse Jackson
* Ketanji Brown Jackson
* Michael Jackson
* Harriet Jacobs
* Barbara Jordan
* Coretta Scott King
* Martin Luther King Jr.
* James Lawson
* Huddie Ledbetter
* John Lewis
* Joseph Lowery
* Malcolm X
* Thurgood Marshall
* Toni Morrison
* Bob Moses
* Diane Nash
* Barack Obama
* Michelle Obama
* Rosa Parks
* Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
* Colin Powell
* Gabriel Prosser
* Joseph Rainey
* A. Philip Randolph
* Hiram Revels
* Paul Robeson
* Al Sharpton
* Fred Shuttlesworth
* Clarence Thomas
* Emmett Till
* Sojourner Truth
* Harriet Tubman
* Nat Turner
* Denmark Vesey
* David Walker
* Booker T. Washington
* Ida B. Wells
* Roy Wilkins
* Oprah Winfrey
* Andrew Young
* Whitney Young

Education, science
and technology|

* African-American studies
* Black schools
* Historically black colleges and universities
* Inventors and scientists
* Museums
* Women
* in computer science
* in medicine
* in STEM fields

Religion|

* African-American Jews
* Islam
* American Society of Muslims
* Nation of Islam
* Black church
* Azusa Street Revival
* Black Hebrew Israelites
* Black theology
* Doctrine of Father Divine

Political movements|

* Anarchism
* Back-to-Africa movement
* Black power
* Movement
* Capitalism
* Conservatism
* Leftism
* Pan-Africanism
* Populism
* Raised fist
* Self-determination
* Nationalism
* Socialism

Civic and economic
groups

* Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH)
* Black Panther Party
* Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
* National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
* Nashville Student Movement
* National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC)
* National Council of Negro Women (NCNW)
* National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC)
* National Urban League (NUL)
* Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
* Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
* Thurgood Marshall College Fund
* United Negro College Fund (UNCF)
* Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA)

Sports|

* Negro league baseball
* Baseball color line
* Black players in professional American football
* Black NFL quarterbacks
* Black players in ice hockey
* Muhammad Ali
* Arthur Ashe
* Jack Johnson
* Joe Louis
* Jesse Owens
* Jackie Robinson
* Serena Williams

Athletic associations
and conferences

* Central (CIAA)
* Mid-Eastern (MEAC)
* Southern (SIAC)
* Southwestern (SWAC)

Ethnic subdivisions|

* By African descent
* Fula
* Gullah
* Igbo
* Yoruba
* Black Indians
* Black Seminoles
* Cherokee freedmen controversy
* Choctaw freedmen
* Creek Freedmen
* Black Southerners
* Blaxicans
* Louisiana Creole
* of color
* Melungeon

Demographics|

* Neighborhoods
* list
* U.S. cities with large populations
* 2000 majorities
* 2010 majorities
* Metropolitan areas
* States and territories

Languages|

* English
* American English
* African-American English
* African-American Vernacular English
* Gullah
* Louisiana Creole

By state/city|

* Alabama
* California
* Los Angeles
* San Francisco
* Florida
* Jacksonville
* Tallahassee
* Georgia
* Atlanta
* Hawaii
* Illinois
* Chicago
* Iowa
* Davenport
* Kansas
* Kentucky
* Louisiana
* Maryland
* Baltimore
* Massachusetts
* Boston
* Michigan
* Detroit
* Mississippi
* Nebraska
* Omaha
* New York
* New York City
* North Carolina
* Oklahoma
* Oregon
* Pennsylvania
* Philadelphia
* Puerto Rico
* South Carolina
* Tennessee
* Texas
* Austin
* Dallas-Fort Worth
* Houston
* San Antonio
* Utah

Diaspora|

* Africa
* Gambia
* Ghana
* Liberia
* Sierra Leone
* America
* Canada
* Dominican Republic
* Haiti
* Mexico
* Trinidad and Tobago
* Israel
* Europe
* France

Lists|

* African Americans
* Activists
* Actors
* Astronauts
* Billionaires
* Jurists
* Mathematicians
* Republicans
* Singers
* Spingarn Medal winners
* US cabinet members
* US representatives
* US senators
* Visual artists
* Writers
* African-American firsts
* Mayors
* Sports firsts
* US state firsts
* Historic places
* Index of related articles
* Landmark African-American legislation
* Lynching victims
* Neighborhoods
* Topics related to the African diaspora

* Category

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