George Washington Carver Legacy Innovation and Leadership Awards Symposium

As a botany and agriculture teacher, Dr. George Washington Carver wanted to improve the lot of “the man farthest down,” the poor, one-horse farmer at the mercy of the market and chained to land exhausted by cotton.

Unlike other agricultural researchers of his time, Dr. Carver saw the need to devise practical farming methods for this kind of farmer to boost self-sufficiency and conservation.

Dr. Carver achieved this through an innovative series of free, easily read brochures that included crop information, cultivation techniques and recipes for nutritious meals. He also urged the farmers to submit soil and water samples for analysis and taught them livestock care and food preservation techniques.

Today, his contributions are honored through the George Washington Carver Legacy Innovation and Leadership Awards Symposium. The annual awards program and symposium is a collaborative effort of the George Washington Carver Birthplace Association and its legacy institutions, which include Kansas State University, Iowa State University, Lincoln University, Simpson College and Tuskegee University.