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What do Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver and Elements 4 Nature have in Common?
by: Jon Adkins
Well, the quick answer to that question is, we all ate, lived and studied on Tuskegee Institute's campus. Of course, we all know that Booker T. Washington founded Tuskegee Institute, now called Tuskegee University, in 1881. George Washington Carver accepted an offer by Booker T. Washington in 1896 to teach and to head the Agricultural Department at Tuskegee. The Legacy of Booker T. Washington was one of great magnitude. Booker T. Washington accomplished the following:
- Founded Tuskegee in 1881
- Wrote 14 books, two of which were "-Up from Slavery-" and "-The Man Farthest Down-"
- Raised funds to establish and operate thousands of small community schools in the South
Most of us know about Booker T. Washington's prolonged philosophical debate with one of our other great Black intellectuals, W.E.B. Dubois. Well, I will never forget the clever one-sentence summary that Dr. Payton, the former president of Tuskegee, said in one of his speeches about the philosophical debate between Booker T. Washington and Dubois. Dr. Payton said that Booker T. Washington left Tuskegee University and W.E.B. Dubois left "-The Souls of Black Folks-" (a book). Nothing else needs to be said about the famous debate. Most people don't know that Booker T. Washington and Marcus Garvey were friends and shared the same philosophical ideas. Basically, Booker T. Washington was focused on teaching and preparing his people to build a nation. He believed the only way we would gain national and international respect is by building our own. Washington was interested in building our own stores, factories and schools. He built and operated an efficient university nicknamed the "Tuskegee Machine" of which I am very proud to be a graduate.
Of course we all know that George Washington Carver was a great man. Some of Carver's accomplishments are as follows:
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Discovered over 300 products from the peanut
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Designed a mobile classroom "Jessup Wagon" to take education out to the famers
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Created 44 practical bulletins for farmers
I can go on and on with a list of accomplishments for both men. Their accomplishments speak for themselves.
We at Elements 4 Nature (E4N) share the same goals and objectives as Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver. Our main goal at E4N is to use the original formulas of George Washington Carver to produce jobs within the Black community. We at E4N are extending the legacy of both George Washington Carver and Booker T. Washington. However, E4N would not exist at this capacity without the partnership that we have with Dr. Faye E. Williams. Dr. Faye Williams is the founder and CEO of Natural Health Options (NHO) and owns the rights to the original formulas for some of George Washington Carver & Dr. Curtis cosmetic products. In 2000, she purchased Curtis Labs in Detroit, Michigan. The continued legacy of George Washington Carver, however, started with the work of Dr. Austin W. Curtis.
Dr. Austin Curtis was George Washington Carver's science & research lab assistant for the last eight years of Carver's life at Tuskegee. Dr. Curtis is credited for keeping Carver's legacy alive by making Carver products available for the public to purchase. After Carver died in 1943, Dr. Curtis established Curtis Labs in Detroit in 1944. Curtis Labs sold George Washington Carver-based cosmetic products and became the largest Black-owned & controlled company in the world. While working as Carver's assistant, Dr. Curtis was known as "Baby Carver" and was well respected by George Washington Carver. Carver even named his famous Rubbing Oil after Dr. Curtis. Dr. Curtis died in 2003 in his daughter's home in California.
Dr. Faye Williams is a remarkable woman. Dr. Williams is not only the CEO of NHO but she is also the current National Chair for the National Congress of Black Women. I met Dr. Williams in 2005 when I started re-selling some of the Carver products. It all started, however, at the Blacks in Government annual training convention when Troy Smith, CFO of NHO, was selling the Carver based-products. That was the first time I saw or even knew that there were any George Washington Carver products being sold on the marketplace. I was happy that I had a chance to purchase some of Carver's original products. I was even more elated about some of George Washington Carver's cosmetics products being manufactured and distributed by a Black-owned and controlled company. That made my day, as a matter of fact, to paraphrase Ice Cube, I would say that day was a good day. What was another good day was when I signed an exclusive agreement with NHO in 2007 to manufacture and distribute the Carver lotion. That agreement was the foundation in tailoring the natural-based company to specifically focus on Carver-based products. Starting a natural-based company was in the works even before the agreement with NHO was signed. However, once my proposal was accepted and signed in 2007, the new natural-based company's focus was now on Carver-based products.
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