Dear Reader:

 

Percy Julian man of Science

Friday was the birthday of chemist Percy Julian. Born April 11, 1899, Julian dedicated his life to science. Julian died April 19, 1975.

His years on this earth were more than productive. Julian was a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants. His work laid the foundation for the steroid drug industry’s production of cortisone, corticosteroids and birth control pills.

Julian received more than 130 chemical patents. He was one of the first African-Americans to receive a doctorate in chemistry. He was the first African-American chemist inducted into the National Academy of Sciences, and the second African-American scientist inducted from any field.

Julian was born In Montgomery, Alabama as the first child of six born to James Sumner Julian and Elizabeth Lena Julian, née Adams. Both of his parents were graduates of what was to be Alabama State University. His father, James, whose own father had been a slave, was employed as a clerk in the Railway Service of the United States Post Office, while his mother, Elizabeth, worked as a schoolteacher.

Percy Julian grew up in the time of racist Jim Crow culture and legal regime in the southern United States. Among his childhood memories was finding a lynched man hanged from a tree while walking in the woods near his home. At a time when it was extremely rare for African-Americans to pursue an education beyond the eighth grade, Julian's parents steered all of their children toward higher education.

Julian attended DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. The college accepted few African-American students. The segregated nature of the town forced social humiliations. Julian was not allowed to live in the college dormitories and first stayed in an off-campus boarding home, which refused to serve him meals. It took him days before Julian found an establishment where he could eat. He later found work firing the furnace, waiting tables, and doing other odd jobs in a fraternity house; in return, he was allowed to sleep in the attic and eat at the house. Julian graduated from DePauw in 1920 Phi Beta Kappa and valedictorian.

Read more about this remarkable man at www.biography.com.

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I invite you to read, learn, enjoy!

 

Eric Von

Publisher/Editor