Friend of the Blog and the unrivaled commentator on the human condition, Max Bernstein, and I recently got into a conversation about honey roasted peanuts. We were unsure if we'd ever eaten unroasted peanuts, and whether those peanuts that come in a shell were, by definition, unroasted. The scintillating conversation digressed into a conversation about American hero George Washington Carver. We realized that we each had a relative pittance of knowledge about the great man, aside from the fact that he 'invented' peanuts. (We agreed that we liked taking someone else's full name as a first and middle name. Mr. Bernstein went on to ponder whether Barack Obama Bernstein had a nice ring to it. I personally think it does, but I'll leave that up to the discretion of my loyal readers. For my last name, Ronald Reagan Redel-Traub is a nice alliteration, and it would truly be an honor to name my child after DC's second most popular airport.) Anyway, if you thought Carver was merely a pioneering peanut farmer, you've missed some of the truly cinematic aspects of his life.
Carver was born into slavery near the close of the Civil War, on the plantation of Moses Carver, in Missouri. When he was just a week old he was captured by kidnappers along with his mother and sister, and sold in Kentucky. Moses Carver hired someone to search for them, but only George was found and returned. After the abolition of slavery, Carver was raised by Moses Carver and his wife as their own children, his adoptive mother Susan taught him how to read and write, and the family encouraged George to pursue academic knowledge. At 13 he traveled to Fort Scott, Kansas to attend school, but after seeing a black man killed by a group of whites, he left the town and finished high school in a different town in Kansas.
In 1886, Carver was rejected from Highland College because of his race, but undeterred he found work as a farm hand. Soon he was able to borrow 300 dollars from a bank, and attend Simpson College in Iowa. An art professor recognized his talents in botany and encouraged him to continue his studies. He was the first black student at Simpson College and would later be the first black teacher at the school. He got his Master's degree at Iowa State, and began to gain recognition nationally for his work.
In 1896, Booker T. Washington recruited Carver to be the head of the Agriculture department at the newly formed Tuskegee Institute. Carver was a pioneering teacher, but ran into some friction from other faculty members who found him arrogant because he graduated from a 'white' institution. Carver and Washington frequently bumped heads, but Washington would call Carver "one of the most thoroughly scientific men of the Negro race with whom I am acquainted." I truly great compliment, and something I think many can only hope to aspire to
Carver, of course, is best known for his work with peanuts. Peanuts proved to be such a valuable commodity, because the soil was eroded by years of cotton farming. Furthermore, the Boll Weevil scurge of the early 20th century made it difficult to harvest any crops. Carver was a proponent of crop rotation, which allowed the soil to recover and yield better harvests of all products. Besides peanuts, Carver was a proponent of the Sweet Potatos and Soybeans. All of which he saw as useful and healthy products. In his role as a peanut expert, Carver became one of the first African Americans to testify before Congress as an expert. He was a widely known figure, and befriended many famous politicians, such as Henry Wallace who'd go on to launch a credible third party bid for the White House in 1948 as a progressive. He also made friends with noted racist Henry Ford, to the extent that after Carver fell ill, Ford installed an elevator at the Tuskegee Institute. After his death, Carver became the first African American, as well as the first non-president, to receive a public monument.
In an interesting twist, that only adds to the cinematic quality of his life, Carver never married and there is little known about his personal life. This has led some modern historians to speculate on the nature of his sexual orientation. At the age of 70 Carver, befriended the much younger scientist Austin Curtis, and Curtis received money from Carver in his will.
In my estimation a great film could be made about Carver. Here's a scene I've envisioned, in it Carver approaches and older gentleman, about the potential of purchasing some land in the area. The old man turns to Carver and says "Land? There's land as far as the eye can see, but it won't do you a dime's worth of good ever since the Boll Weevils ravaged the land." The camera pans to Carver, who without speaking pantomimes the gears spinning in his head. The next shot is of Carver yielding a large peanut harvest. The movie even has a naturally catchy title, He's Nuts: The George Washington Carver Story.
All too often Carver is pigeonholed. Carver's name, race, and area of study make him seem like a sort of novelty. There seems to be a sense that Carver's life story isn't important, but that he is taught as a sort of token nod during black history month. In my opinion Carver represents the American dream at its finest, born into slavery, Carver pulled himself up by the bootstraps, facing adversity every step of the way, to become the pioneering figure in his field. That's an achievement that should be celebrated regardless of race, or the fact that one shares a name with arguably the most famous President.
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