Three Sticks — Personal Development for Christians

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson integrated Major League Baseball by playing with the Brooklyn Dodgers in a game against the Boston Braves. We all know the story and have acknowledged Jackie’s major triumph as the beginning of change in America. In no way am I detracting from Jackie Robinson’s public and brave stance, but there were earlier examples that also deserve to be recognized.

Nova has put together an excellent 2 hour documentary entitled, forgotten Genius, about the life of one of America’s premier scientists of the 20th Century, Dr. Percy Lavon Julian. Dr. Julian was an amazing man who overcame some of the most difficult obstacles that a person can face to become a leading light in the field of chemistry. During his lifetime he:

• Earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Vienna in 1931;

• Published the first paper with a black chemist in the lead in the early 1930’s;

• Successfully challenged the leading expert on organic chemistry in 1935;

• Became the Director of Research for the Glidden Company in 1936;

• Developed a way to inexpensively synthesize progesterone in 1939;

• Developed Aero Foam that effectively saved the lives of thousands of American sailors during WWII;

• Developed a way to simply manufacture cortisone easing the pain of millions of suffers of inflammation in 1949;

• Founded Julian Laboratories in 1953 - later sold it for $2.3 million becoming one of the wealthiest black entrepreneurs in America.

Achieving these accomplishments in today’s environment would be difficult for an anyone, but to imagine a black man in the 1930’s - 1960’s having such a profound influence on an entire field is unimaginable.

Dr. Percy Julian overcame a number of obstacles both professional and personal that would have stopped most people in their tracks. For example, he had to leave Harvard University with only a Master’s Degree rather than a Ph.D. because he was denied a Teaching Assistant position which would have paid for his education. He was also asked to leave Howard University as the Chair of the Chemistry department and had little choice to assume a research fellowship at DePauw University.

Dr. Julian is an amazing man who deserves to be remembered as a pioneer in the field of chemistry and a black person who successfully challenged the prevailing system of the period to achieve what man would have said was impossible.

forgotten Genius is available on your local PBS station during the month of February and is also available online at Nova’s website.

Other Percy Julian Links:

• Percy Julian at Blackinventor.com

• Percy Julian at Wikipedia

• Percy Julian at the Chemical Heritage Foundation

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