Monument Visitor Center
Bust Of George Washington Carver
The following comments I make have been gleaned from materials at the park that was on plaques, in movies and talks with park personnel.
The Memorial has a plaque that asks the question, " Why a National Monument? " then goes on to explain. In a world aflame with war and every kind of hatred, no name can evoke greater goodwill than that of Dr. George Washington Carver of Tuskegee - a man whose whole life has been dedicated to all mankind. Dr Carver lived to make men free, from poverty. Clearly he has seen how millions starve to death in a world that could live in peace and plenty on what it throws away. Today there are dozens of national parks to honor historically significant American presidents, artists, explorers, educators, inventors and activists. Yet back in the early 1940s there were only two national parks. The birthplace of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
When Congress authorized this farm as a monument for Carver, the United States was deeply embroiled in the bloodshed and hatred of World War II. American soldiers, sailors, and airmen, as well as society, were still segregated by race. This was the first unit of the National Park Service to honor an African American. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate overwhelmingly approved the measure to establish the George Washington Carver National Monument. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the measure into federal law July 14, 1943.
During the Civil War guerrilla warfare intensified along the Missouri and Kansas border. George Washington Carver was born a slave to Moses and Susan Carver on a farm in about 1864. He was caught up in the turmoil of the Civil War. When he was an infant outlaws kidnapped him and his mother Mary. George was found in Arkansas and returned to Moses and Susan Carver. He was orphaned and nearly dead from whooping cough. His mother was never found. He never knew the identity of his father, but he believed he was a slave on a nearby farm. Because of his frail health he did not have to work in the fields and was given much lighter work to do. This gave him time to explore the woods and collect flowers and put them in his little garden he had hidden in the brush. Flowers thrived under his care and and he was given the name of " The Plant Doctor " in his community college. George left the farm about 1875 and never lived with the Carvers again. Many of the values that shaped his life were those learned on the farm and his life work was rooted in his ability to retain his childhood wonder of nature.
George Washington Carver had a lifelong service to humanity. In his efforts in this regard he mastered chemistry, botany, the study of fungus, music, art, herbalism, cooking and message. As noted earlier he started life in slavery in Diamond Grove, Missouri and he longed for an education so he could understand the many mysteries of nature. Schooling was denied him. round the age of 11 he left home on his own in a search of answers to the questions he had. This search saw him go through poverty, prejudice, violence and injustice.
After finding himself rejected from college due to his race he took up a home stead in Kansas. Eventually he was accepted as an art major at Simpson College in Iowa where he was the only African American. His desire to serve humanity brought him to the painful decision to leave the study of art. This decision was helped by professors who told him his art would never sell or be accepted because of his race: however, he was an accomplished artist. So he transferred to Iowa State Agricultural College known today as Iowa State University. There he pursued a study of agriculture. He was quoted as saying " the more my ideas develop, the more beautiful and grand seems the plan I have laid out to pursue, or rather the one God has destined for me. It is really all I see in a successful life. "
George earned a Bachelor of Agriculture degree in 1894 and a Masters of Agriculture Degree in 1896. In 1896 he accepted an offer to head a new Agriculture Department at Booker T. Washington in Tuskegee, Alabama. his current college pleaded with him to stay pointing out all the advantages of staying and all the problems of going down to the deep south to a new program that was just getting started. Also, the salary was drastically lower. When he arrived they did not have a office for him. They did not have a laboratory for him to work in and teach in. He had no equipment. He searched in trash cans around campus and found cans, bottles all sorts of junk which he fashioned in his lab equipment. In spite of these short comings he tackled the job with hope and enthusiasm. With the passage of time he became a beacon and inspiration to students who were inspired by his ability to overcome the many obstacles.
His work with peanuts was aimed at freeing African American farmers and the South from the grip of King Cotton. He soon realized that the soil was being depleted of all its nutrients and not being replaced. The methods of tilling the soil resulted in tons of the valuable top soil being washed away with each heavy rain leaving many field so deeply rutted that they could not be plowed. He taught new farming methods and convinced southern farmers to grown soil enriching crops such as peanuts and soy beans. With this thought he envisioned that the south could be rejuvenated economically. He embraced a message of hope " to help the man farthest down ". He developed Agricultural Bulletins which were distributed free even around the world. These covered such things as cultivation techniques and recipes for nutritious meals. He produced 43 such bulletins.
In 1921 he testified before a U. S. Congress House of Representatives committee on a peanut tariff bill. His testimony brought him into national attention and a group of young white Southerners he met at a YMCA retreat became believers in what he was teaching. They arranged speaking tours for him in colleges where no African American had ever been welcomed. He became a symbol of interracial cooperation. Carvers accomplishments are almost to many to mention. For example he developed more then 300 uses for peanuts. I think he developed about 150 to 175 uses for soy beans. He was an accomplished musician and played many instruments and had a clear soprano voice. He developed synthetic rubber for use in automobile tires and plastics that could be used in any number of things. His inventions came to attention of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison who sought information on the industrial uses of plants including peanuts and soybeans. He was an accomplished painter and loved the arts. He entered a painting in the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago and received honorable mention. He called his laboratory " God's little workshop ".
Carver was a deeply religious man not just in name but in the way he lived his life every day and that will be the subject of the second posting about George Washington Carver which will come in the next day or so. I cannot tell you how impressed I am with this remarkable man and had it not been for the racial prejudices he faced daily I am confident his accomplishments would have been even greater.
I will say goodnight for this time and close with this. Remember God loves you and gave his Son Jesus for you and I love you also.
Grandpa Bill.
No comments:
Post a Comment