George Washington Carver
... When he was 12 years old, he left home to attend a black school. There was only one teacher with 75 children in a small room. While other kids played at recess, he studied. He studied at home. Soon he knew more than his teacher. He wrote to a college to enroll and they accepted him, but when they found out that he was black, they told him he couldn't attend. When he was 30 years old, he was accepted at a college in Iowa. He did so well that his teacher helped him to get a transfer to Iowa State College. He learned about plants and farming He did many things to earn money to pay for his expenses. Sometimes he ironed clothes for his classmates. He found an old stove at the city dump and brought it home to cook meals for his friends. He used old wrapping paper for notebooks. After he graduated, they asked him to teach biology. Later he was asked to teach at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. He started studying diseases that were attacking the farmers' crops. He also did a lot of experimenting to find new ways to use different plants. He made more than 300 products from peanuts. He even made soap and ink from peanuts. He made 118 produc...