African American Scientists During The Harlem Renaissance

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Without prominent African American scientists during the early era of the Harlem Renaissance, music and writing from African Americans would have been only a small part of this rising of racial awareness. Scientists during this time have been mostly white and with the breakthrough of a few colored scientists, it stimulated the growth into adventuring into the science field. During the early 1920s, the age of a racial revolution came about in many fields of art, writing, and education. This time was coined as the Harlem Renaissance; this renaissance took on many forms way after the stock market crash in Wall Street on October 29, 1929, and the Dust Bowls of 1935. Even through the harsh realities White America faced During the Great Depression …show more content…

This notable scientist is Dr. George Washington Carver who innovated and changed the way many southern farmers’ views of the peanut. Carver’s road to being an agriculturally groundbreaking scientist as he is known today was rough. Dr. George Washington Carver was born into slavery in 1864 during the Civil War (Hersey 242). He was soon kidnapped from his birthplace and sold to another family who educated him. This ignited Carver’s interest in learning and agriculture as he went on into Botanical studies at Iowa State. After graduating, Carver taught at Tuskegee Institutes’ agricultural department with principle Booker T. Washington (Hersey …show more content…

Carver’s advances for the use of the peanut to enact revitalizing the health of the soil and to prevent the abuse of nature his mission to create a sustainable food source. Although not revolutionizing the farming and agricultural landscape, Carver’s legacy as the Peanut Man proved to be able to teach southern farmers that establishing a permanent and sustainable basis rested on diversifying crops (Hersey 261). Carver’s passion for the legume took him to various heights such as to stand in Congress to represent the European-American industry and farmers during a time were segregation was still at play to a Peanut product man with over 100 different peanut concoctions throughout the 1920s and 1930s. In which the peanut is still used in American farms as a sustainable food source and an agricultural