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    3. Percy Julian: The Forgotten Genius
    Percy Julian: The Forgotten Genius

    His house was firebombed. He lost his job on the eve of the Depression. He took on powerful, entrenched interests in the scientific establishment and overcame countless obstacles to become a world-class chemist, a self-made millionaire, and a humanitarian. Yet despite his achievements, Percy Julian’s story is largely unknown.


    The grandson of Alabama slaves, Julian broke the color barrier in American science more than a decade before Jackie Robinson did in baseball. A brilliant innovator, he discovered a way to turn soybeans into synthetic steroids on an industrial scale, helping to make drugs like cortisone available to millions.

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    +3  Views: 1192 Answers: 2 Posted: 14 years ago
    Tags: humanitarian chemist innovator
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      2 Answers

      While he’d encountered the same racial obstacles all black scientists of his generation faced, Julian had overcome them more successfully than any other African-American in the first half of the 20th century.

      14 years ago. Rating: 3
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        There are lots of famous people who go unnoticed, are we to name more or comment on this one?

        14 years ago. Rating: 1
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          IamPamela313

          <a href="/users/1111/randy-palmer/">@Randy Palmer</a> - Do Both!!!

          commented 14 years ago


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