George Washington Carver  My name is Charles C.C.Washington, and this is my story of Dr. Geroge Washington Carver, who became one of the nation's greatest educators and agricultural researchers.

He was born in about 1864 (exact year unknown) on the Moses Carver plantation in Diamond Grove Mo. His father died in a accident shortly before his birth, and when he was still an infant, Carver and his mother were kidnapped by slave raiders. The baby was returned to the plantation, but his mother was never heard from again.

Carver grew to be a student of life and a scholar, despite the illness and frailty of his earyl childhood. Because he was not strong enough to work in the field, he helped out with household chores and gardening.

That is why he probably developed a keen interest in plants at an early age. He cared for a wide variety of flora from the land near his home and became known as the "plant doctor", helping neighbors and friends with ailing plants.

He learned to read,write and spell at home because there were no schools for Africian Americans in Diamond Grove.

From the age of 10 his thirst for knowledge and desire for formal education led him to several communities in Missouri and Kansas and finally in 1890 to Indiana and Iowa where he enrolled at Simpson College to study piano and painting.

1891:  Carver pursued a pragmatic career in scientific agriculture although he excelled in art and music.  He became the first Africian American to enroll at Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts which today is Iowa State University.

1893:  He was a leader in the YMCA and the debate club. He was captain of the athletic team, and highest ranking  of the camus military regiment. His poetry was published in the student newspapeer and two of his paintings were exhibited at the Worlds Fair in Chicago.

1894:  His interests in music and art remained strong but he excelled in botany and horticulture.  After he completed his bachelor's degree he appointed to the faculty becoming Iowa State's first Africian American faculty member.

1896: For the next two years he was assistant botanist for the college Experiment Station, where he quitely developed scientific skills in plant pathology and mycology, the branch of botany that deals with fungi.

He published several articles on his work and gained national respect. He completed his master's degree and was invited by Booker T. Washington to join the faculty of Alabama's Tuskegee Institute.

At Tuskegee he gained an internatioal reputation in research,teaching and outreach. He instilled the attitude of gentleness and taught that education should be "made common" used for betterment of the people in the community.

Carvers work resulted in the creation of 325 products from peanuts, more than 100 products from sweet potatoes and hudreds more from a dozen other plants native to the South. These products contributed to rural economic improvement by offering alternative crops to cotton that were benefical for the farmers and for the land.

Carver worked on improving soils,growing crops with low inputs, and using species that fixed nitrogen (hence the work on the cowpea and the peanut).  He went on to write a book on soils, cultivation, and the destruction of forest as well as the rapid and almost constant decomposition of organic matter.

1943:  Dr. George Washington Carver died. However he recieved many honors in his lifetime and after including a 1938 feature film "Life Of George Washington Carver", the George Washington Carver Museum, dedicated at Tuskegee Institute in 1941, the Roosevelt Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Southern Agriculture in 1939, a national monument in Diamond Grove, Mo., commemorative postage stamps in 1947 and 1998, a fifty-cent coin in 1951.  He was elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in 1977, and inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1990.  In 1994 Iowa State awarded him the degree,Doctor of Humane Letters. In recent years Dr. Carver has been recognized by being named to the USDA Hall of Heroes (2000) and one fo 100 nominees for the "Greatest American" series on the Discovery Channel (2005)

In conclusion I would like to say that George Washington Carver is by far one of the "Greatest Africian American I have ever read about.  He makes me proud to be an Africian American. And like Dr. Carver I too had many childhood illnessess, but after reading his story I feel I too can become a great Africian American someday.