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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- An African American inventor, educator, botanist and scientist, George Washington Carver's fame with alternative crops, specifically the peanut, is taught in elementary school today. His primary drive while creating inventions used yet today was to help poor farmers grow alternative crops to stimulate the economy and provide a source of their own food.

Carver was born to slave parents just before the abolishion of slavery. When he was just one week old, he, his mother and a sister were kidnapped by night raiders. His father hired someone to find them, but only George was recovered.

Over time and through a great amount of turmoil Carver attended a series of schools, eventually earning his diploma. His college experience was rocky, after getting one denial after another due to his skin color. He eventually studied at Iowa State Agricultural College in Ames where he was the first black student and later the first black faculty member.

In 1896, Carver began working at what is now known as Tuskegee University where he remained for 47 years. Carver accomplished a myriad of things in his life, too many to name here, and is being honored to this day for his insights, experiments and inventions.