Donald J. Cook – Percy Lavon Julian Stamp Collection

Born on April 11, 1899 in Montgomery, Alabama, Percy Lavon Julian was an African American research chemist. Born into a family of six siblings, Julian’s father was a formerly enslaved man, a college graduate of what was to become Alabama State University, and a railway clerk for the United States Postal Service. His mother was also an Alabama State University graduate and a schoolteacher. Despite prevailing social stigmas against the education of African Americans beyond the eighth grade in the United States during the early 20th century, Julian and his siblings were encouraged by their parents to remain in school.

Julian attended DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, where he was the subject of significant racial discrimination. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from DePauw University in 1920, Julian served as a chemistry instructor at Fisk University after realizing the challenges he would face as a person of color pursuing a doctorate in chemistry. In 1923, Julian was awarded an Austin Fellowship in Chemistry, which allowed him the opportunity to attend Harvard University, where he received his Master of Science degree. But was unable to pursue his Ph. D. at Harvard due to further racial discrimination. In 1929, while serving as an instructor at Howard University, Julian received a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship that allowed him to work at the University of Vienna, where he finally received his Ph. D. in 1931.

Over the course of his career, Julian’s accomplishments included establishing his own company, Julian Laboratories Incorporated, where he synthesized steroid intermediaries from Mexican wild yams. He was the first person to synthesize the natural product physostigmine, and was a pioneer in the industrial large-scale chemical synthesis of human hormones progesterone and testosterone from plant sterols such as stigmasterol and sitosterol. Julian’s work helped greatly reduce the cost of steroid intermediates thus expanding the use of several important drugs, including cortisone and hydrocortisone.

Percy Lavon Julian passed away on April 19, 1975.

Sources

Donald J. Cook – Percy Lavon Julian Stamp Collection, Science History Institute Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.