9781422283233

on the farm. He spent most of his time helping with house- hold chores such as cooking, laundry, and sewing. The Carvers taught George to read and write. As a re- sult, he gained an appreciation for learning and a thirst for knowledge. George left the Carver home when he was young to go to a school for black children. Eventually, af- ter attending several different schools, he graduated from Minneapolis High School in Kansas. He was accepted to Highland College but when he arrived on campus, he was asked to leave. The administrators did not realize he was black, and indicated that they did not accept students of his race. Several years later, he applied and was accepted to Iowa State Agricultural College in Ames. Carver was interested in many things: music, art, bot- any, chemistry, and agriculture. He eventually decided to study botany and went on to earn both a bachelor of science degree and a master’s degree in plant pathology at Iowa State. He wanted to take his knowledge of botany and share it with other students as a teacher and a researcher. In 1896, he was hired by Booker T. Washington to run the agricul- tural department at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Tuske- gee, a school for blacks only, was founded in 1881 as part of the effort to expand education for blacks after the Civil War. George Washington Carver enjoyed special status at Tuskegee. He had received much attention for his research and studies and was one of the only faculty members with a degree from a school that typically did not admit black students.

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Black Achievement in Science: Chemistry