Session 2000
Effective: 2-18-2000


� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � SENATE RESOLUTION No. 1813 � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � A Resolution recognizing George Washington Carver during our celebration of black history month.
� � � WHEREAS,� George Washington Carver was an eminent American botanist, chemurgist and educator who made
significant contributions through his research in agriculture and gained world renown as one of our greatest citizens of
the last century; and

� � � WHEREAS,� George Washington Carver was born into slavery near Diamond Grove, Missouri, in 1864. When he
was a baby his father was accidentally killed and shortly thereafter he, his sister and mother were stolen by Confederate
raiders and sold in Arkansas. Although near death with whooping cough, he was retrieved by his master, Moses Carver,
upon payment of a prized racehorse valued at $300. His sister and mother were not found and were presumed dead.
He left home at age 10 to enroll in a school in Neosho, Missouri; and

� � � WHEREAS,� When he was approximately 13 years old, George Washington Carver came to Kansas to attend school
at Fort Scott. Later while working in Olathe he was taken in by the Seymour family. He went with the Seymour family
when they moved to Minneapolis. He remained in Minneapolis about four years where he completed his high school
studies in 1884; and

� � � WHEREAS,� After being offered a scholarship he was refused entrance into Highland College because of his race.
In 1888, George Washington Carver left Kansas to pursue his education in Iowa. He entered the State Agriculture
College in Ames and earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in 1894 and a Master's Degree in 1896; and

� � � WHEREAS,� In 1896, George Washington Carver accepted Booker T. Washington's invitation to become head of
the newly organized agriculture department at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama; and

� � � WHEREAS,� George Washington Carver spent the rest of his life at Tuskegee where he had a distinguished career
by developing programs to nourish the land that was worn out by growing only cotton and by finding new uses for
soybeans, sweet potatoes and peanuts; and

� � � WHEREAS,� Even as a youth, George Washington Carver had an instinctive knowledge of plants. In Alabama he
found the soil exhausted from single-crop cotton cultivation, eroded for lack of plant cover and parched by the sun. He
taught farmers to restore the soil by planting nitrogen-producing legumes, and he taught crop diversification by planting
peanuts and sweet potatoes, both which produced especially good yields in the Alabama soil; and

� � � WHEREAS,� Upon discovering that there was no ready market for these new farm products, George Washington
Carver began a series of experiments that resulted in more than 300 by-products of the peanut and sweet potato. At
the institute's experimental farm he worked with hybrids and various types of fertilizer. He developed a strain of cotton
known as Carver's hybrid and grew enormous vegetables; and

� � � WHEREAS,� Although George Washington Carver became known world wide for his research and the products he
developed, and was offered many positions at high salaries, he refused to leave Tuskegee; moreover, he refused to
accept an increase in salary above the $1,500 a year he received when he first came to Tuskegee; and

� � � WHEREAS,� George Washington Carver published many documents and received many awards for his work. In 1940
the Carver Research Foundation was established at Tuskegee Institute. Following George Washington Carver's death
in 1943 at age 79, his entire estate was added to the foundation's endowment; and

� � � WHEREAS,� George Washington Carver's time in Minneapolis is a featured exhibit at the Ottawa County Historical
Museum, located at 110 S. Concord in Minneapolis. The museum's curator, Jettie Condray, prepared and presented
exhibits detailing George Washington Carver's years in Minneapolis for the dedication of the George Washington Carver
complex at the U.S. Department of Agriculture compound near Washington, D.C. in October of 1999. Visitors are
invited to visit the George Washington Carver exhibit in the Ottawa County Historical Museum--the route to the Carver
exhibit should be plainly marked to insure visitation: Now, therefore,

� � � Be it resolved by the Senate of the State of Kansas:�That it is fitting during February, black history month, to recognize
the genius of George Washington Carver and the part that Minneapolis, Kansas, had in his upbringing; and

� � � Be it further resolved:�That the secretary of the Senate send an enrolled copy of this resolution to Jettie Condray,
Curator, Ottawa County Historical Museum, 110 S. Concord, Minneapolis, Kansas 67467.

Senate Resolution No. 1813 was sponsored by Senators Vidricksen, Gooch and Jones