Scientist Overcame Discrimination to Revolutionize Treatment of Glaucoma and Arthritis

(NOTE TO EDITORS: Black Chemist Percy Julian made significant discoveries using soybeans that revolutionized the treatment of glaucoma and arthritis - treatments that are still the major ones used today. This article about his work is suggested as a feature for black history month. For further information, including interviews with scientists who worked with Julian, contact the ACS Communications office at the number listed on the release.)

Like many African Americans of his generation, Percy Lavon Julian is little known by name yet lives on through his legacy.

He revolutionized the treatment of glaucoma and arthritis, making drugs that once cost hundreds of dollars per drop available for a few cents per gram. He figured out ways to use soybeans for everything from food to fire extinguishers. His face graces a postal stamp and his work on physostigmine in treating glaucoma has been declared a national historic chemical landmark by the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.

These achievements are all the more remarkable given the circumstances of Julian's life. Born in 1899 in Montgomery, Ala., he was barred from the college preparatory program in the public high school. Nonetheless, Julian gained admittance to DePauw University in Indiana, a predominantly white school that accepted African American students. As he left the family home to pursue his ambition to become a chemist, his grandfather, a former slave, waved goodbye with a three-fingered hand - the two missing fingers had been severed as punishment for learning to read.

Julian worked his way through DePauw by digging ditches and waiting tables at a fraternity and in 1920, he graduated at the top of his class with a Phi Beta Kappa key. Eager to earn an advanced degree, his professors discouraged him, saying he would
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Contact: Beverly Hassell
b_hassell@acs.org
202-872-4065
American Chemical Society
17-Jan-2000