When our thoughts are filled with hate against anyone, negro or white, we exist in a living hell that is as real as hell will every be."
-George Washington Carver
For all of us who need reminding, George Washington Carver was born a slave in Missouri about 1860 and rose to brilliance and world-wide celebrity during the next 70 years. As slavery was abolished in Missouri, he and his brother James were adopted by his white former slave owners Moses and Susan Carver. "Aunt Susan" became both mother and teacher to the boys since the local school only accepted whites. Seeing a spark of brilliance in George, she encouraged him to continue his education beyond what she could provide.
As a young adult, Carver homesteaded to raise money for school only to be turned away from the first college to which he was accepted when they saw that he was black. Undeterred, he entered racially integrated Simpson College in Iowa, eventually receiving a masters degree and becoming its first black professor. In 1896 Booker T. Washington invited him to head The Tuskegee Institute's Agriculture Department, where he taught for 47 years, inventing hundreds of products from plant material.
But his greatest social impact came in his later years. For more than a decade he lectured students at white southern colleges using his considerable celebrity to build bridges of forbearance, exposing the history of slavery to a generation that had no first hand understanding. In spite of criticism from activists--both black and white--he focused on Heaven, seeking to bind together a nation split by hatred, sacrificing himself on the alter of Jesus' love.
Blessings,
Jim
"...With God, all things are possible" - Matthew 19:26
