ings that I have ever had in the South. . . . It was a five hundred mile trip as we visited several points
in Florida. One of the gentlemen had never heard me speak, after I had finished and gotten to my
room he came in and said, ‘Dr. Carver, I am thoroughly conv[i]nced that you are doing missionary
work as well as along other lines, as you are doing so much in the way of better race relations while
you did not say anything about them at all, what you have accomplished speaks for itself . . . ‘ .”
11 October 1927: “Upon my return from Tulsa, Oklahoma, I found your good letter awaiting me. . .
. I took the entire peanut exhibit and installed it at the Negro Fair there. Quite a large organization.
This exhibit consists of 202 products. . . .”
8 February 1928: “. . . It is so pleasing to know that you are still interested in art . . . . I have just
received the 1928 Maxfield Parrish Calendar . . . There are two figu[r]es sitting upon a rock . . . . He
has worked in those marvelous blues, which nobody except Maxfield Parrish can do. . . . I do not
know whether I told you that I am making investigations on the possibilities of our southern woods,
plants and hurbs, making paper. The paper situation as you know is quite acute, as the spruce forest
are becoming quite scarce. . . .”
7 October 1928: “. . . My exhibit will show fully fifty different things from which paper can be made. . . .
Products from the much despised palm root of Fla. will be shown. Possibly dyes from the green persimmon. . . .”
22 November 1928: “. . . It will probably be 50 years after I have been called hence before the people
can fully realize what a contribution to education the work I am doing is. Booker Washington is yet
misunderstood by some, but with many there is a growing understanding. God has promised to take
care of us, so I am not worrying . . . .”
17 June 1929: “. . . I am praying for that time never to come, when my work is finished here. I want
to be called right from my work. . . .
“
Our summer school is on and we have about 600 teachers so far, they are still coming in. . . .”
21 January 1930: “. . . No, peanut milk cannot be ex[tracted?] except through the person who
has the patent rights. He is an Englishman and wants fifteen thousand dollars for the right to
manufacture and a three percent royalty on every dollar made. Of course, my products are different
from his, so that if I wanted to get into a long controversary [sic], it would be . . . expensive and consume
much of my time. . . .”
7 March 1930: “. . . I do not think it the best thing to push the fruit fly matter further. Just remem-
ber that I am in the South, where colored people are ‘Jim Crowed’ practically everywhere. I would no
doubt have no cooperation whatever from the other side. . . . I do not expect to see any change very
radical in my life time. . . .”
26 June 1930: “. . . Just think what is meant to the dear old soul whose evening of life had come, no
where to go, no one to give her a cup of cold water. You came as the good Samaratan, took her in,
cared for her until the sun of her life had set. To my mind this act meant more than a thousand spec-
tacular speeches or even the endowing of a university. . . .”
6 February 1931: “. . . I have just this minute finished reading an article . . . on ‘Soviet Menace to
the U.S.’ It not only voices your sentiments exactly, but says much more. I think I am about as near
Russia as I will be. . . . I shall let you know what the Russian representative says when he comes for
the interview from N.Y. City. . . .”
“
. . . The Russian Govt. is urging me to go to Russia, in the interest of cotton growing. . . . [T]hey
want me to stay six months and make a study of . . . the whole agrl. situation as well as the commer-
cial possibilities of the country. . . . The depression is something terrible . . . . [W]e found the children
of one family eating swill, it was all the food they had. . . .”
11 December 1931: “. . . The thing I am working on now is cotton road building material. Road experts say
that they believe it will make a perfect road.Our governor [is] much interested and will send his expert . . . up
to figure out the exact cost per mile as soon as I am ready. The public is very enthusiastic over it. . . .”
15 January 1933: “. . . I am trying to point the way out to some one almost every day. I am telling them
to make lye hominy, salt rising bread, etc. etc. I taught one poor fellow (white) who has a family was out of
work, how to make soap from waste fats etc. . . . He is doing nicely with it now and is very happy. . . .”
14 February 1933: “. . . If every one would live the Golden Rule way of life, we would soon lift the
depression and have a prosperity never dreamed of before. . . .”
