Active THE POOR, IMPACTING THE WORLD
The proposal Carver conclusively accepted was not the most lucrative, but his choice was based on how he could best help former slaves. On Parade 26, 1896, Booker T. Washington offered him the chance to gang up on his heart ' s desire. Washington had established the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama as one of the first institutes of higher learning for African - Americans. Washington wanted to establish an agriculture school there, rationalizing that many former slaves had taken up farming as a means of tuck. He looked to Carver to head it up.
Washington ' s polestar was to empower blacks by bit them become an integral part of the economy. Carver agreed with this philosophy and wanted to slap on in the effort. He wrote to Washington, " It has always been the one ideal of my life to be of the greatest good to the greatest number of ' my people ' possible... feeling as I do that this line of education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom to our people. "
His work would impact the lives of more than just African - Americans. Carver ' s research played a big part in transforming the agricultural economy of the deep South from one based on " King Cotton, " which depleted the soil, to one based on other crops such as peanuts, sweet potatoes and soy beans, which helped restore the soil.
Carver ' s work included the teaching of soil improvement and the diversification of crops. He discovered hundreds of uses for the peanut, the sweet potato and the soybean, thus stimulating the cultivation of these crops. He devised many products from cotton waste and extracted blue, purple and red pigments from local clay. American dye companies relied on his research and advice to produce dyes during the Second World War, when the traditional resources for these became scarce.
Traveling around the South, Carver educated local communities on how to improve their farming techniques and on how common plants, weeds and elements in nature could be utilized as a substitute for industrial products that were too expensive or hard to find. He was ready and willing to share any of his knowledge with anyone else for, as he put it, " the price of a postage stamp. "
Carver believed that no one need ever starve if they knew how to utilize indigenous wild vegetation. It was this insight into the natural world that led the likes of Joseph Stalin and Mahatma Gandhi to seek out Carver ' s knowledge. Facing widespread starvation in their nations, both men asked for his help. The government of Britain also reportedly contacted him in the early part of World War II to help them prepare for the possibility of famine.
OLD VALUES FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM
Carver ' s world of family farms and agriculturally based communities gradually faded. Technological advances in the decades after his death brought sweeping changes to agriculture in the Western world, making many of his discoveries seemingly irrelevant. His work appears insignificant in the fast - paced, information - driven economies of today. Yet one thing he taught that will never become pass lies in the area of character.
