Life in America Today is Better Because of His Inventions!

Today’s Information On African American History: October 28, 2009

I don’t think it ever occurred to my folks to tell me when I was small about inventions made by African American people. Although I was aware that I was living in “a white man’s world,” I spent most of my time suffering in the “black folk’s world.”

I was part of a black family which worked hard 6 – 7 days a week in labor work, and although my mother spent as much time with me as she could between 2 – 3 jobs, we didn’t talk much about inventions. However, she always encouraged me to believe that I could do anything. Like the time when we were in the cotton fields and I told her that I saw a machine in my mind that could “suck up” cotton, clean it, and put it in a big container. The older folks in the field just roared with laughter. “Boy, don’t you know that our hands are made for pik’ng cotton? Just look at our hands and look at those boles of cotton. Our hands fit neatly inside the boles and just yanks out the cotton! Boy, nothing will ever replace us in these heah cotton fields!”

I will never forget the roaring laughter all over the field. People could not believe that there would ever be a machine to replace them. While people laughed at my preposterous idea, my mom smiled and said, “That’s alright, son. I believe you. Maybe you will build that machine.” Of course I never did. I just couldn’t see me building much of anything.

Years later when I saw these machines in the field called “cotton-picking machines,” I couldn’t believe that they were so similar to the idea in my head. Since I didn’t know of any black people inventing anything, I just couldn’t see me building a machine. That could be the reason my mother spent a lot of her money buying me books. Books never laughed at me. Books fueled my imagination for better. Then, of course, there was the Bible. Wow! Folks in the Bible days could do all kinds of things, but the art work in the Bible didn’t resemble me.

My maternal grandfather went from laborer to labor contractor to handyman to home and church builder. But I still couldn’t see myself doing that. I was too clumsy, slow, stammered, and things got mixed up in my head. We didn’t know about dyslexia or attention deficit disorder or information processing disorder at that time. We all just knew that “Ed is slow.” Of course, students at school called me other names, but that’s another story!

My mother observed my interest in reading and made sure I had access to books, magazines, and newspapers. Then she subscribed to The Chicago Defender Newspaper, The Pittsburg Courier Newspaper, or some other black newspaper. This fueled my interest in reading further. Then she subscribed to some magazines that had a LOT of black people and a LOT of stories about black people. These magazines were called EBONY, JET, and ¬The Crisis magazine of the NAACP. Now, my creative juices were really flowing!

Between my mother and some key teachers at school, I found out about a great inventor named George Washington Carver, a genius of a black man, a friend of the wealthy Henry Ford, and a man that helped Tuskegee University, and even spent time inventing things to help white farmers. This man was born a slave in 1860 in Diamond Grove, Missouri, didn’t go to college until he was 30, and died one year after I was born.

Mr. Carver intrigued me. Some people called him “The Peanut Man.” I loved peanuts and peanut butter. My maternal grandfather raised peanuts. We roasted peanuts. Our whole family enjoyed peanuts. Mr. Carver was my man!

It seemed that my teachers and a few white historians wanted to make sure youth of my day knew about George Washington Carver. I was especially interested in him because as a child he stammered, like me. His first name was my middle name. And then there were those premonitions and his direct talks with the Creator. Once, his slave master wanted to hurt him bad because George Washington Carver had cut off some of the limbs from his precious orchard, without permission, and seemingly without any good reason.

While the slave master was getting ready to beat George, George tried to explain but his teeth, tongue and mouth got in the way and he stammered. Thankfully, the owner’s wife understood stammering and told her husband to stop. George then picked up a limb and explained by showing the disease growing on the limb. The wife was thankful; the slave owner was amazed; George was thankful! Because of this insight by Mr. Washington, the slave owner was able to save his orchard from blight.

George went on to do more experiments and have these talks with the Creator. The slave master sent George to school and encouraged him in his education. His education included Minneapolis High School in Kansas, Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, Iowa Agricultural College (which is now known as Iowa State University), Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now known as Tuskegee University). He was offered a scholarship at Highland University in Kansas, but when the president met him and discovered he was "a Negro," the scholarship offer was rejected!

Being turned down didn't seem to affect Mr. Carver too much. It wasn’t long before he was making headlines at Tuskegee University with the peanut, from which he invented peanut butter. Along came about 400 more inventions, including a way to improve the soil of white farmers who were losing money because they didn’t understand about nutrients needed in the soil and the need to rotate the crops. The rich became richer off Mr. Carver but he didn’t seem to mind.

Some of Mr. Carver’s inventions including ink, facial cream, shampoo, paint, and soap. He also experimented with the sweet potato “and was able to develop more than 115 products from it including flour, starch and synthetic rubber (the United States Army utilized many of his products during World War I.)”

Many African Americans were not too happy with Mr. Carver. They believed he should have sold his inventions and made millions for himself and “his people.” Mr. Carver didn’t seem to be interested in making money; he just wanted to help America any way he could. He was one of many African Americans who would use their mind unselfishly to create wealth for America, and died without knowing that America would soon scale back on their debt to African Americans.

Next time: Mr. Carver made many white people rich, thus creating wealth for America. There were other African American inventors, male and female, who did likewise. We will review a few next time!

What is October known for? Halloween? The Bilingual Child Month? Church Library Month? Church Safety and Security Month? Domestic Violence Awareness Month? Dyslexia Awareness Month? German American Heritage Month? Global Diversity Awareness Month? National Breast Cancer Awareness Month? National Crime Prevention Month? National Dental Hygiene Month? Polish American Heritage Month? Women’s Small Business Month?

Credit: http://www.brownielocks.com/october.html

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