7 The 100 Most Influential Inventors of All Time 7Many scientists thought of Carver more as a concoction-
ist than as a contributor to scientific knowledge. Many of
his fellow blacks were critical of what they regarded as his
subservience. Certainly, this small, mild, soft-spoken,
innately modest man, eccentric in dress and mannerism,
seemed unbelievably heedless of the conventional pleasures
and rewards of this life. But these qualities endeared
Carver to many whites, who were almost invariably
charmed by his humble demeanour and his quiet work in
self-imposed segregation at Tuskegee. As a result of his
accommodation to the mores of the South, whites came
to regard him with a sort of patronizing adulation.
Carver thus increasingly came to stand for much of
white America as a kind of saintly and comfortable symbol
of the intellectual achievements of black Americans.
Carver was evidently uninterested in the role his image
played in the racial politics of the time. His great desire in
later life was simply to serve humanity; and his work,
which began for the sake of the poorest of the black
sharecroppers, paved the way for a better life for the
entire South. His efforts brought about a significant
advance in agricultural training in an era when agriculture
was the largest single occupation of Americans, and he
extended Tuskegee’s influence throughout the South by
encouraging improved farm methods, crop diversification,
and soil conservation.
James A. Naismith
(b. Nov. 6, 1861, Almonte, Ont., Can.—d. Nov. 28, 1939, Lawrence,
Kan., U.S.)
J
ames A. Naismith was a Canadian-American physical-
education director who, in December 1891, at the
International Young Men’s Christian Association Training