Black Inventors Who Changed The World: George Washington Carver
This Black innovator changed the way we live with the discovery of 300 uses of the peanut.
George Washington Carver was a botanist, scientist, inventor, professor, scholar, and humanitarian. In 1896, he joined the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama, a vocational school for African-Americans. There, he would not only discover all of the amazing byproducts of the peanut, but would also spend the rest of his life at the institute inventing, teaching, and creating.
Carver was determined to find a new food to help impoverished, starving Black farmers in Alabama, and he used agricultural chemistry and scientific methodology to test the soil. While conducting his study, Carver was able to determine what kind of crop would grow best in the region. That discovery revealed the local soil was perfect for growing peanuts and sweet potatoes. He revolutionized the farming industry in America and was later dubbed