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George Washington Carver experienced extreme racism.
Nevertheless, he used his energy, his creativity, and his intelligence to feed his passion for learning, for plants, and for his commitment to his community. In the end, his work accomplished two goals. It transformed agriculture in the South. And it improved the lives of poor farmers who worked the land there.
The Carver homestead
▲ George Washington Carver had a tough start. He was born in around 1864, just months before the end of the Civil War and the abolishment of slavery. His father died in a farm accident before George was born. His mother was enslaved by Moses and Susan Carver, who had a homestead near Diamond Grove (now known simply as Diamond), Missouri. (A homestead was public land given to people who promised to live on it and improve it.) While still an infant, George and his mother and sister were kidnapped and resold. A Union army scout was sent to search for them. But the scout found only George. He returned George to the Carver household, where Moses and Susan raised him, now an orphan, as their son.
◀ George was sickly throughout his childhood and was not able to work in the fields. At home, Susan Carver taught him to garden, cook, do laundry, sew, and create herbal medicines. These were skills he would use to survive later in life. She also taught him to read. Noah Webster’s Elementary Spelling Book was George’s only book. He spent every free moment in the woods. Later he recalled, “Day after day I spent in the woods alone in order to collect my floral beauties and put them in my little garden I had hidden in brush . . . as it was considered foolishness . . . to waste time with flowers.”
Susan Carver recognized George’s intelligence and love of learning, but local schools did not accept Black students. At just 10 or 11 years old, Carver set out alone and on foot to find an education. The first school he attended was eight miles away in Neosho, Missouri. Unfortunately, the teacher there didn’t know much more than George. Disappointed, George moved on, traveling west with families he had met in Neosho and beyond. Wherever he lived, he used the household skills he had learned from Susan Carver to survive. ▼
A Southern classroom of the time
▲ In 1880, Carver graduated from Minneapolis High School in Minneapolis, Kansas. Several years later, he applied by mail to Highland College (above) in Highland, Kansas. (Today, it is called Highland Community College.) At the time, Highland was an all-White institution. Carver was accepted. But when he showed up to enroll, an official said, “You didn’t tell me you were a Negro. Highland College does not take Negroes.” Carver’s hopes evaporated. He had spent most of his money getting ready for college and traveling to Highland.
▲ In 1889, Carver’s passion for learning took him to Winterset, Iowa. There, he met a White couple named John and Helen Milholland. They befriended him and encouraged him to enter Simpson College. Simpson was a school that enrolled all ethnic groups. Carver studied art there and flourished. Of the people at Simpson, he said “The kind of people at Simpson College made me believe I was a human being.”
Think Piece!
What do you think Carver meant by his comment about the people at Simpson College?
At Iowa Agricultural College, Carver again faced racial discrimination. At first, he was not given a room near the other students. He was not allowed to eat with the other students. One of his professors gave him a laboratory to live in. Nonetheless, Carver shined. His poetry was published in the student newspaper. He was a leader in the debate club. His skills and knowledge of botany and agriculture stood out. By 1896, he had earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree and had been invited to join the faculty as the first Black to do so. For the short time he was a faculty member, he published articles about his work and gained a national reputation. Then came change. ▶
◀ Etta Budd, Carver’s art teacher, was impressed with the work he showed her – paintings and needlework, as well as plants that he had grafted or cross-fertilized. But, as before, his race was a problem. Budd was concerned that Carver could not earn a living as a Black artist. She saw his love of plants and encouraged him to follow his interest in botany and agriculture. At her suggestion, Carver enrolled at Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm (now Iowa State University, in Ames). Budd’s father was a faculty member there. The year was 1891. Carver was the first Black student to enroll at the school.
George Washington Carver graduation portrait
▲ Booker T. Washington was one of the most important Black leaders of his time. He founded the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in 1881. One of his goals was to establish an agricultural school at the institute. Who better to head the school than George Washington Carver? Here is part of the letter Washington wrote to Carver about the position and part of Carver’s reply.
I cannot offer you money, position, or fame. . . . These things I now ask you to give up. I offer you in their place: work – hard, hard work, the task of bringing people from degradation, poverty, and waste to full manhood. . . .
It has always been the one great ideal of my life to be of the greatest good to the greatest number of ‘my people’ possible . . . feeling as I do that this line of education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom to our people.
REFLECTION
Reflect on Carver’s life before Tuskegee. What happened to him because he was Black? How might his experiences have been different if he had been White?
