The Recruitment
Booker T. Washington personally recruited George Washington Carver in 1896 to head the agriculture department at Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now Tuskegee University) in Alabama.
At the time, Carver was flourishing at Iowa State - the first Black faculty member, respected by colleagues, and on a promising academic career path. But Washington's offer spoke to something deeper: a chance to directly serve his people.
A Mission, Not Just a Job
Washington's appeal was not to Carver's ambition, but to his sense of duty. He offered Carver the opportunity to use his scientific training to help impoverished Black farmers in the South - people who were struggling with depleted soil, crop failures, and crushing poverty just a generation after slavery.
For Carver, who had always seen his scientific gifts as tools for service, this was irresistible. He accepted, despite Iowa State's attempts to keep him with offers of higher pay and research opportunities.
What He Found
When Carver arrived at Tuskegee in October 1896, he found the agricultural department essentially had nothing - no laboratory, minimal equipment, and little funding. The contrast with Iowa State's well-equipped facilities was stark.
But Carver saw opportunity. He and his students built equipment from scraps, collected samples from the surrounding countryside, and created a functional laboratory from almost nothing. This resourcefulness would become a hallmark of his teaching philosophy.
The Impact
Carver stayed at Tuskegee for 47 years, until his death in 1943. He never left despite numerous offers from corporations, other universities, and even Thomas Edison. Tuskegee gave him something no amount of money could buy: the chance to fulfill his life's mission of helping his people.