Percy Lavon Julian

As the inventor of synthetic cortisone, fire-extinguishing Aero-Foam, and drugs to treat glaucoma, Percy Lavon Julian (1899-1975) made life-enhancing and life-saving products more affordable. Despite facing racial prejudice and segregation at nearly every step of his career, Julian became the first African American to be named director of research at a white-owned firm, and he eventually founded his own Julian Laboratories and Julian Research Institute, where he continued as director until his death.

Percy Lavon Julian was born in Montgomery, Alabama, on April 11, 1899; his father was a railway mail clerk, and his grandfather had been a slave. He credited his strict father with providing the discipline and high standards necessary to his success. Reader's Digest reported that when as a young boy Julian proudly brought home a math test with a grade of 80, his father responded, "A son of mine must not be satisfied with mediocrity. After this make it 100!"

As a teenager, Julian moved with his family to Green-castle, Indiana, home of DePauw University. All six of the Julian children, including Percy, studied there. Although he was required to enter the university as a "sub-freshman, " in 1920 he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, as class valedictorian. He hoped to continue his education and become a research scientist in the field of organic chemistry, but his mentors dissuaded him. Although one of his chemistry professors made inquiries to graduate schools on Julian's behalf, they all replied negatively. "Discourage your bright young colored lad, " one school advised. "We couldn't get him a job when he was done, and it'll only mean frustration. Why don't you find him a teaching job in a Negro college in the South? He doesn't need a Ph.D. for that."

Despite his father's suggestion that he go into medicine, where he could be more independent, Julian persisted in chemistry. He went to Fisk University in Nashville, a school for African Americans, where he taught until 1923. The talent of his students encouraged him to pursue his own dream, and he applied for a research fellowship at Harvard. He earned his Master's degree in a year, finishing in the top group of his class. Had he been white, Harvard would have rewarded him with a post as a teaching assistant, but, as they explained to Julian, they feared that white students from the South would not accept him as a teacher. He stayed at Harvard on minor research fellowships, then returned to the South to teach at all-black schools West Virginia State College and Howard University, where after one year he was appointed head of the chemistry department.

Invented Drug for Glaucoma

Julian's research at Harvard served him well later. He had begun to repeat the experiments of the Austrian chemist Ernst Spth, who had learned to synthesize chemicals such as nicotine and ephedrine-rather than studying these compounds as they appeared in nature, Julian experimented on making these chemicals himself. With the financial backing of a wealthy Harvard classmate, he went to Vienna to study with Spth. Spth welcomed Julian into his household, initiating a father-son relationship and working closely together on synthesizing a variety of naturally occurring chemicals. Through his work with Spth, Julian received his Ph.D. at the University of Vienna in 1931. With his Ph.D., he returned to Howard, and then went again to DePauw, where he both taught and researched, but was denied the title of professor because of his race.

Although he would make one of his most important discoveries at this time, Julian's students remembered him as a committed teacher. Chemist J. Wayne Cole recalled in Ebony magazine, "He was obviously involved in his laboratory work but was essentially an instructor-first and foremost. It was the shaping of the student that appealed to him the most. And believe me, he never tolerated laziness or disinterestedness."

While carrying his teaching load, Julian pursued the problem of synthesizing physostigmine, a chemical known to help in the treatment of glaucoma. Despite years of effort, chemists had not been able to make the chemical in the laboratory. With fundraising help from his former professor Dean William Blanchard, Julian's research progressed rapidly and attracted international attention as he reported his findings in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. When he finally succeeded, he was universally acknowledged as leader in the field of chemistry. Dean Blanchard moved to appoint Julian as the head of DePauw's chemistry department, to make Julian the first professor of chemistry at any traditionally white university in America, and to make DePauw, as Reader's Digest reported, "a chemical Mecca." Blanchard's colleagues refused, calling the appointment "inadvisable."

Soybean Research Enabled More Innovations

With his academic career apparently at a dead-end, Julian received a timely invitation from Chicago's Glidden Company to direct soybean research. While there, he developed a process for isolating and preparing soya protein, which led to a number of important inventions. Among the most highly praised was his "bean soup, " commercially known as Aero-Foam, which the Navy used during wartime to put out fires; he also developed a soy protein for coating paper at a fraction of the cost of the previously used milk casein.

Even more important was his discovery of a technique by which he could mass-produce the hormones testosterone and progesterone. Testosterone was then touted as an anti-aging drug for men, while progesterone helped prevent spontaneous abortion in pregnant mothers. While these hormones were available in nature, they were difficult to get, with the supply limited to the brains and spines of cattle that had been slaughtered. Although German chemists had extracted hormones from soybean oil, the technique they used was expensive and could not provide them in commercial quantities. Julian discovered away to make the oil porous, enabling chemists to create mass quantities of the hormones.

The invention of Compound S, however, is considered Julian's biggest scientific achievement. Natural cortisone was a recognized treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and other illnesses causing muscle pain; to get it, however, the bile from nearly 15, 000 oxen would be required to treat a single patient for a year. The limited supply of cortisone made it impractical as a treatment option. Again using soybean oils, Julian created a drug-Compound S-that could mimic the effects of natural cortisone in the body. His synthesized cortisone resembled natural cortisone in every way, except that it lacked an oxygen atom in a crucial position. Because the body itself could replace that atom when the drug was used, the therapeutic result was the same. Julian's discovery made the benefits of cortisone economically feasible for all patients.

Racial Discrimination Did Not Deter Him

Julian patented these and nearly 130 other chemical innovations, enabling him to earn make a living much larger than that available to most blacks. In 1950, shortly after he had been named "Chicagoan of the Year" in a Chicago Sun-Times poll, Julian moved into the white, middle-class suburb of Oak Park, Illinois. He purchased an ornate, 15-room house and planned extensive landscaping and improvements, but even before he and his family moved in, they received threats and were the victims of an attempted arson. The water commissioner refused to turn on their water, until the family threatened to go to court. Julian was compelled to hire a private guard to patrol the property 24 hours a day. He told Time, "We've lived through these things all our lives. As far as the hurt to the spirit goes, we've become accustomed to that."

Julian continued to confront racism in his professional life as well. In 1951, when the Research Corporation of New York City invited Julian, along with 34 other scientists, to hear a talk at the Union League Club of Chicago, the club's manager contacted the organization and informed them that Julian would not be permitted to enter the building. The New York Times reported that the club's directors had issued "explicit instructions" forbidding Julian's attendance. By 1956, he had become more actively involved in opposing racial injustice. He became the first black man to chair the General Council of Congregational Christian Churches' Council for Social Action. The council voted to raise litigation funds for a delegate who had been refused admission to an American Legion Post, and, according to the New York Times, called on members to "support nonsegregated practices in selling, buying, and leasing property."

In 1967, Julian and North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company president Asa Spaulding organized a group of 47 wealthy business persons and professionals to raise money for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The group, calling itself the National Negro Business and Professional Committee for the Legal Defense Fund, announced in the New York Times, "This means the Negro millionaire is coming of age and taking a responsible place in the community." The committee planned to raise $1 million a year for cases involving voting rights, school desegregation, and job discrimination. Julian had been connected with the NAACP since 1947, when he won their Spingarn Medal Award.

Founded His Own Laboratories

Julian's financial success also enabled him to leave Glidden in 1953 and found Julian Laboratories. In addition to his suburban Chicago laboratory, he established subsidiaries in Mexico and Guatemala, which studied the possible medical benefits of the Mexican yam. These pharmaceutical businesses were so successful that eventually Julian, approaching his mid-60s, found the pressure to be too much, and in 1961 he sold them for nearly $2.4 million. In 1964, he retired as president from Julian Laboratories, then became director of Julian Research Institute and president of Julian Associates.

In 1974, Julian became increasingly ill, and was diagnosed with cancer of the liver. Despite a lack of energy and a difficult schedule of treatment, Julian continued to work and give speeches. In November of that year, he was honored by Sigma Xi, a society of research scientists, with the Procter Prize for extraordinary service to science and humanity. As Ebony reported, in his acceptance speech he discussed the benefits and drawbacks of scientific advancements: "Many of these successes have been abused, he acknowledged, while others have been the subjects of material applications having little implication for the enrichment of the spirit; man has treasured them as weapons or employed them as gadgets." Despite this, he said, he "shares the humanistic faith in an ordered, purposeful and meaningful reality."

Shortly before his death, Julian announced that he was satisfied with his life's work. "I have had one goal in my life, " he said, "that of playing some role in making life a little easier for the persons who come after me." He died in April of 1975. In addition to many academic honors and citations he received during his lifetime, he was honored in 1993 by the U.S. Postal Service with a postage stamp in the Black Heritage Series. He was also honored by the city of Oak Park, Illinois, which named a middle school after one of its first residents.

Further Reading

Contemporary Black Biography, vol. 6, Gale, 1994.

Ebony, March 1975.

Jet, June 3, 1985; January 29, 1990.

New York Times, January 18, 1950; July 19, 1951; June 28, 1956; March 20, 1967; April 21, 1975.

Reader's Digest, August, 1946.

Stamps, February 13, 1993.

Time, December 4, 1950.

"Percy Julian School, " http://kato.TheRamp.net/julian/bio.html (March 20, 1998).

chemist

Personal Information

Born April 11, 1899, in Montgomery, AL; died of cancer, 1975; son of James S. (a railway mail clerk) and Elizabeth Lena (Adams) Julian; married Anna Johnson (a sociologist), December 24, 1935; children: Percy Lavon, Jr., Faith Roselle, Rhoderic.
Education: DePauw University, B.A., 1920; Harvard University, M.A., 1923; University of Vienna, Ph.D., 1931.
Memberships: Phi Beta Kappa; National Academy of Science; fellow, Chemical Society of London, New York Academy of Science, and American Institute of Chemists.

Career

Chemistry instructor, Fisk University, 1920-22; Harvard University, research assistant in chemistry, 1925-26; professor of chemistry, West Virginia State College for Negroes, 1926-27; Howard University, associate professor and acting head of chemistry department, 1927-29, professor and department head, 1931-32; research fellow and teacher of organic chemistry, DePauw University, 1932-36; Glidden Company, Chicago, director of research, soya-products division, 1936-45, research director and manager of fine chemicals development, 1945-53; president, Julian Laboratories, Inc. and Laboratorios Julian de Mexico, 1953-64; president, Julian Associates, and director, Julian Research Institute, 1964-75. Head of Council for Social Action of the Congregational Christian Churches, 1956; special consultant, National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases; member of board, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions.

Life's Work

Known as the "soybean chemist" for his extraordinary success in synthesizing innovative drugs and industrial chemicals from natural soya products, Percy Lavon Julian was an internationally acclaimed scientist whose discoveries earned him more than 130 chemical patents and a host of professional awards. Among his most important contributions were the creation of a synthetic version of cortisone, a drug used to relieve the pain and inflammation of rheumatoid arthritis, and physostigmine, prescribed to alleviate the effects of glaucoma--a disease of the eye that can cause blindness if left untreated. Julian's work with soybeans and soya derivatives also led to the mass production of the male and female hormones testosterone and progesterone and the development of a powerful firefighting chemical called Aero-Foam, used by the U.S. Navy during World War II. The first African American to direct a modern industrial laboratory, he spent 17 years with the Glidden Company in Chicago before leaving to establish his own successful pharmaceutical enterprise, Julian Laboratories, Inc.

In addition to his groundbreaking work in the field of organic chemistry, Julian was a leader in the fight for civil rights. A strong supporter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, in 1967 he joined a group of 46 other black businesspeople in raising money to enforce civil rights legislation through the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Despite his personal and professional success, Julian's own encounters with racism--from the college professors who refused to offer him a teaching assistantship to the hoodlums who firebombed his suburban home--were never far from his mind.

The eldest of six children, Percy Lavon Julian was born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1899. His father, James, who worked as a railway mail clerk, was the son of former slaves who went on to purchase their own small farm. According to Percy's younger brother, Emerson, James Julian was a strict disciplinarian who had high expectations for his children. All six would later earn advanced degrees. One day, Emerson recalled, Percy rushed home from elementary school expecting to be congratulated for having received a score of 80 on an arithmetic exam. Instead of praising him, the elder Julian responded with disappointment; stating that anything less than 100 percent would never do. Julian took his father's advice seriously and went on to graduate at the top of his class from the State Normal School for Negroes. He then entered Indiana's DePauw University with the hope of studying organic chemistry. There he excelled in both his studies and extracurricular activities and in 1920 was named valedictorian of his graduating class.

He soon discovered, though, that academic achievement and leadership qualities were not enough to guarantee him a place in graduate school. For a week Julian waited anxiously while his fellow students received offers of graduate fellowships at some of the country's leading universities. Finally he could stand the suspense no longer and went to the home of his mentor, Dr. William Blanchard, who reluctantly showed him a handful of letters he had received from chemistry professors around the country. According to an article in Ebony, all of the correspondence advised Blanchard to discourage "his bright colored lad" from pursuing graduate study in the field. "We couldn't get him a job when he's done, and it'll only mean frustration," one professor had written. "Why don't you find him a teaching job in a Negro college in the South? He doesn't need a Ph.D. for that." In Many Shades of Black, published nearly half a century later, Julian recalled his pain and anger upon learning that all of his hard work had come to nothing. "There went my dreams and hopes of four years, and as I pressed my lips to hold back the tears, I remembered my breeding, braced myself, and thanked him [Dr. Blanchard] for thinking of me," he wrote.

Although Julian's father advised him to give up the idea of a career in chemistry to enter medicine, a field which offered more opportunities for blacks, Julian was determined to persevere in his chosen course of study. Louis Haber, writing in Black Pioneers of Science and Invention, traced the fledgling chemist's interest in the subject back to a boyhood incident: ever since the day when, as a small child, he had peered through the window of an all-white high school to watch a group of boys at work in a chemistry lab, Julian had wanted to be a chemist. After graduating from DePauw, he took the advice of his professors and accepted a teaching position at Fisk University, a black college in Tennessee. Two years later he was awarded an Austin Fellowship to continue his graduate studies at Harvard. He received his master's degree in chemistry in 1923.

Students of Julian's academic rank were ordinarily offered the opportunity to serve as teaching assistants. But according to Paul de Kruif of Reader's Digest, the powers-that-be at Harvard felt that because Julian was black, Southern white students "might not accept him as a teacher." He remained at Harvard for the next several years under a series of minor research fellowships, waiting on tables, stoking coal, and working at a variety of other part-time jobs in order to make ends meet. In 1926 he accepted a teaching position at the West Virginia State College for Negroes but was so disillusioned by the lack of facilities and intellectual stimulation that he left after only one year. The following year he was offered the position of acting head of the department of chemistry at Howard University in Washington, D.C. He remained there for two years, during which time he helped to plan and oversee the construction of a new, $1 million chemistry lab.

Julian interrupted his teaching career in 1929 when he was awarded a General Education Board Fellowship to continue his graduate studies at the University of Vienna. There he worked side by side with the eminent Viennese chemist Ernst Spath, who had won wide recognition for his synthesis of the drugs nicotine and ephedrine. Like Spath, Julian was intrigued by the ways in which nature converted simple organic compounds into complex substances, such as vitamins and hormones. In an effort to supplement the limited supply of chemical riches produced by plants and animals, the two worked tirelessly to duplicate these patterns of natural conversion in the laboratory. In so doing, they helped to advance the bold, new frontiers of synthetic chemistry.

Among Julian's many areas of investigation was the soybean, a product which was then being used in Germany for the manufacture of a variety of drugs, including physostigmine. Physostigmine, originally isolated from the seeds of the Physostigma plant in 1865, causes the pupil of the eye to contract and is thus useful in the treatment of glaucoma. If untreated, glaucoma causes pressure within the eyeball to increase to such an extent that the retina--the light-sensitive layer that lines the interior of the eye--is destroyed, resulting in blindness. In the early 1930s, scientists did not understand why physostigmine reduced pressure within the eye, nor were they able to obtain sufficient quantities from nature to provide patients with the treatment they needed.

After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Vienna in 1931, Julian returned to the United States to continue his career in teaching. He spent one more year at Howard University, and then, at the invitation of his former professor, Dr. Blanchard, returned to DePauw University as a research fellow and teacher of organic chemistry. At Howard, Julian, together with two of his colleagues from Vienna, had begun an extensive investigation into the structure and synthetic production of physostigmine. When Julian moved to DePauw in 1932, Dr. Blanchard, then dean of the college, arranged for a special laboratory to be designed and equipped for him. At the lab, Julian, the Viennese chemist Dr. Josef Pikl, and six graduate students buried themselves in their research. Before long, their work on the synthesis of physostigmine, much of which was published in monograph form in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, had attracted the attention of the international scientific community. Finally, in 1935, Julian and Dr. Pikl succeeded in producing an exact synthetic replica of physostigmine. Their discovery was hailed by scientists from around the world and the details published in a host of scholarly texts and journals.

Despite his momentous accomplishments in the laboratory, Julian continued to encounter racial prejudice within the academic community. Upon completion of his groundbreaking work with physostigmine, Dean Blanchard recommended that Julian be named head of the chemistry department at DePauw. This would have made him the first African American chemistry professor at a predominantly white American university. But Blanchard's colleagues immediately objected to the suggestion, claiming that the appointment would be ill-advised.

Around the same time, the Glidden Company, one of the country's largest paint, varnish, and chemical manufacturers, was seeking a research chemist to direct a study of the protein-rich soybean. Hearing of Julian's achievements, Glidden's vice-president contacted him and offered him the position of chief chemist and director of the company's soya-products division. Worn out by racial conflict in the academic world and eager to face a new challenge, Julian accepted immediately. Nine years later he was named director of research and manager of fine chemicals development. "Never before had a black man served in so esteemed a position within the firm," wrote Hamilton Bims in Ebony. "The association lasted some 17 years, and Dr. Julian was idolized by his employers and subordinates."

Julian's first project at Glidden was to devise a technique for coating paper using soya protein in place of a more expensive milk protein. Some years later the same soya protein was used in the manufacture of Aero-Foam, a firefighting solution that extinguished oil and gasoline fires by forming an impenetrable blanket over them. According to Haber, the solution, which was nicknamed "bean soup," helped save the lives of thousands of sailors and naval airmen during World War II. Julian's research with soybeans also resulted in an innovative technique for manufacturing synthetic hormones. Hormone deficiency, which often occurs in people of advancing age, can result in cancer, extreme fatigue, and a variety of other medical problems. Although many hormones can be found in sterols--or solid alcohols--produced by certain animals and vegetables, these sterols are often difficult to extract, or available in very short supply. Using a chemical solvent made of quicklime and plaster of Paris, Julian devised an effective method of extracting sterols from soybean oil. His work resulted in a tremendous increase in the world supply of synthetic progesterone and testosterone, as well as a significant reduction in the cost of hormone treatments.

Another of Julian's crowning achievements at Glidden--perhaps the most important of his career--was the synthesis of cortisone from soybean sterols. Cortisone, often referred to as one of science's "miracle drugs," is effective in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (a chronic disease that causes pain, stiffness, and damage to the joints) and other inflammatory diseases and is now widely available. But in the 1940s, the only way to obtain cortisone was to extract it from the bile of slaughtered oxen. To treat a single patient for one year required the bile from nearly 15,000 animals. Because of the limited supply, the cost of the compound was sky-high--certainly out of reach of the majority of patients who needed it most.

Through his experimentation with soybean sterols, Julian came up with a drug he called cortexolone, or Substance S. The only difference between the molecular structure of Substance S and that of cortisone was that Substance S was missing a single oxygen atom. Before long Julian devised a way to add the missing atom to his compound, and by the end of the decade, synthetic cortisone was available to ease the pain of millions of arthritis sufferers. "The synthesis of cortisone, and other of Dr. Julian's successes, have been widely acclaimed as singular achievements," noted Bims in Ebony. "Yet equally important has been his success in making [such] treatments economical--thus available to all. No ivory tower scientist, he has succeeded consistently in working out ways for the efficient production and marketing of his work."

In 1950 Julian was named "Chicagoan of the Year" for his outstanding contributions to the field of chemistry. Yet, as documented in Black Pioneers of Science and Invention, he continued to be plagued by racial discrimination. Not long after the awards ceremony, he and his wife bought a large home in the exclusive, all-white community of Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago. On Thanksgiving Day--even before the Julian family had moved in--a band of angry whites attempted to burn the house down. Luckily the disturbance alerted neighbors, who called the fire department in time to save the home. Although the attack was formally denounced by members of the community and by a coalition of Chicago clergymen, less than one year later a dynamite bomb thrown from a car exploded under the bedroom window of the Julian children. The children escaped injury, but their father was incensed. He suffered yet another indignity in the summer of 1951, when, having been invited to participate in a scientific conference at the city's Union League Club, he was informed at the last moment that it was against the rules for people of color to attend.

Julian left the Glidden Company in 1953 to establish his own firm, Julian Laboratories, Inc., in Chicago, and a subsidiary, Laboratorios Julian de Mexico, in Mexico City. Both companies specialized in the production of synthetic cortisone. His research soon revealed that Mexico's wild yams were an even better source for his products than soybeans, and within a few years, Julian Laboratories had become one of the world's largest producers of pharmaceuticals synthesized from wild yams. After ten years, however, Julian found the pressure of running two large, international businesses overwhelming. In 1964 he sold both of his companies to the Philadelphia pharmaceutical manufacturer Smith, Kline & French for the sum of nearly $2.4 million. He then went on to establish two smaller enterprises in Franklin Park, Illinois: Julian Associates and the Julian Research Institute. There he was able to continue his basic research. He also served as a special consultant to the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases.

During the last ten years of his life, Julian devoted much of his energy to the civil rights movement. The first African American, as well as the first layperson to direct the Council for Social Action of the Congregational Christian Churches, he also served as co-chairman of the National Business and Professional Committee of the NAACP's Legal Defense and Educational Fund. This organization helped to raise money for the legal defense of black people throughout the country. Over the years, Julian received honorary degrees from a dozen universities and served on the boards of numerous professional, scientific, and civic organizations. He also earned a host of prestigious honors, including the 1947 Spingarn Award from the NAACP, the Chemical Pioneer Award from the American Institute of Chemists, and the Procter Prize for extraordinary service to science and humanity.

Reluctant to curb his scientific and professional activities even in the face of cancer, Julian continued to work in his laboratory and attend speaking engagements around the country until shortly before his death in 1975. The little remaining energy he had he devoted to his family--and to the care of his 10,000 prize-winning tulips. His spirit lives on in dozens of lifesaving discoveries, as well as in the halls of Percy L. Julian Junior High School in Oak Park, Illinois, which, in 1985, was renamed in honor of the community's most famous native son. "I have had one goal in my life," Julian was quoted as saying in Ebony, "that of playing some role in making life a little easier for the persons who come after me." In 1990, following ten years of pressure from minority members of the National Patent Lawyers Association, Percy Lavon Julian was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, making him one of the first black scientists to be honored in this way.

Awards

Spingarn Medal, NAACP, 1947; Chicagoan of the Year, Chicago Sun-Times, 1950; Silver Plaque Award, National Conference of Christians and Jews, 1965; Chemical Pioneer Award, American Institute of Chemists, 1968; Procter Prize, 1974; inducted into National Inventors Hall of Fame, 1990; commemorative stamp issued by U.S. Postal Service, 1993.

Further Reading

Books

• Davis, Elizabeth L., Fathers of America, Revell, 1958.
• Haber, Louis, Black Pioneers of Science and Invention, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1970, pp. 122-45.
• Haskins, Jim, Outward Dreams: Black Inventors and Their Inventions, Bantam, 1991.
• Wormley, S. L., and Fenderson, L. H., editors, Many Shades of Black, Morrow, 1969.

• Ebony, March 1975, pp. 94-96.
• Jet, June 3, 1985, p. 23; January 29, 1990, p. 9.
• Journal of the American Chemical Society, March 1935, vol. 57, no. 3.
• New York Times, April 30, 1968; April 21, 1975, p. 32.
• Opportunity, March 1941, vol. 19, no. 3.
• Reader's Digest, August 1946.
• Sun-Times (Chicago), November 23, 1950; July 3, 1951.

— Caroline B. D. Smith

Percy Lavon Julian
Julian circa 1940–1950
Born	April 11, 1899(1899-04-11) Montgomery, Alabama
Died	April 19, 1975 (aged 76) Waukegan, Illinois
Occupation	Chemist
Spouse(s)	Anna Roselle Johnson
Children	Percy Lavon Julian, Jr. (1940-2008) and Faith Julian (1944- )
Parents	Elizabeth Lena Adams (1878–?) and James Sumner Julian (1871–1951)

Percy Lavon Julian (April 11, 1899 – April 19, 1975) was an African American research chemist and a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants. He was the first to synthesize the natural product physostigmine; and was an African American pioneer in the industrial large-scale chemical synthesis of the human hormones, steroids, progesterone, and testosterone, from plant sterols such as stigmasterol and sitosterol. His work would lay the foundation for the steroid drug industry's production of cortisone, other corticosteroids, and birth control pills. He later started his own company to synthesize steroid intermediates from the Mexican wild yam. His work helped reduce the cost of steroid intermediates to large multinational pharmaceutical companies.^[1]

During his lifetime he received more than 130 chemical patents. Julian was one of the first African Americans to receive a doctorate in chemistry. He was the first African-American chemist inducted into the National Academy of Sciences, and the second African-American scientist inducted from any field.^[1]

Contents 1 Early Life and Education 2 Glidden 3 Steroids 4 Oak Park and Julian Laboratories 5 National Academy of Sciences 6 Death 7 Legacy 8 Archive 9 Patents 10 Publications 11 References 12 Further reading 13 External links

Early Life and Education

Percy Julian was born in Montgomery, Alabama to Elizabeth Lena Adams and James Sumner Julian (1871–1951). James was a railway mail carrier for the United States Post Office, and his father was a slave.^[2][3][4] Elizabeth worked as a school teacher. Percy Julian grew up in the time of Jim Crow. Among his childhood memories was finding a lynched man hung from a tree while walking in the woods near his home. While it was generally unheard of for African Americans at the time to pursue an education beyond the 8^th grade, Julian's parents steered all of their children toward higher education.

Julian attended DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. The college accepted few African-American students. The segregated nature of the town forced social humiliations. Julian was not allowed to live in the college dormitories and first stayed in an off-campus boarding home, which refused to serve him meals. It took him days before Julian found an establishment where he could eat. He worked firing the furnace and doing other odd jobs in a fraternity house. In return, he was allowed to sleep in the attic and eat at the house. Julian graduated from DePauw in 1920 Phi Beta Kappa and valedictorian.^[5] By 1930 Julian's father had moved the entire family to Greencastle, Indiana so that all his children could attend college at DePauw. The father was still working as a railroad postal clerk.^[2]

Julian wanted to obtain his doctorate in chemistry, but learned it would be difficult for an African American. After graduating from DePauw, Julian became a chemistry instructor at Fisk University. He then received an Austin Fellowship in Chemistry and went to Harvard University in 1923 for his M.S. Worried that white students would resent being taught by an African American, Harvard withdrew Julian's teaching assistantship. He was unable to complete his Ph.D. at Harvard.

In 1929, while an instructor at Howard University, Julian received a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship to continue his graduate work at the University of Vienna, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1931. He studied under Ernst Späth and was considered an impressive student. In Europe, he found freedom from the racial prejudices that had nearly stifled him in the States. He freely participated in intellectual social gatherings, went to the opera and found greater acceptance among his peers.^[6][7] Julian was one of the first African Americans to receive a Ph.D. in chemistry, after St. Elmo Brady and Edward M. A. Chandler.^[1][8] During Julian's lifetime he earned more than 138 chemical patents for his work. Percy Julian was the second African American to get a masters degree in chemistry.^{[citation needed]} He was the first African-American chemist inducted into the National Academy of Sciences, and the second African-American scientist inducted from any field.

After returning from Vienna, Julian taught at Howard University for one year, where he met his future wife, Anna Roselle Johnson (Ph.D. in Sociology, 1937, University of Pennsylvania). They married on December 24, 1935 and had two children: Percy Lavon Julian, Jr. (1940-February 24, 2008), who became a prestigious civil rights lawyer in Madison, Wisconsin;^[9] and Faith Roselle Julian (1944- ), who still resides in their Oak Park home and often makes moving speeches about her father and his contributions to science.^[5]

At Howard, Julian got involved in university politics and set off an embarrassing chain of events. After he goaded, at the University President's request, a white chemist named Jacob Shohan into resigning, Shohan retaliated by releasing to the local African-American newspaper the letters Julian had written to him from Vienna. The letters contained accounts of Julian's sex life, and criticism of individual Howard faculty members. Julian's laboratory assistant, Robert Thompson, also charged he had found his wife and Julian together in a sexual tryst. When Thompson was fired for filing a lawsuit against the University, he also gave the paper racy letters which Julian had written to him from Vienna. Through the summer of 1932, the Baltimore Afro-American published all of Julian's letters. Eventually, under the scandal, and its accompanying pressure force Julian to resign. He lost his position, and everything he had worked for. ^[1]

After the scandal, Julian's mentor, William Blanchard, threw him a much need life line at the lowest point in Julian's career. Blanchard offered Julian a position to teach organic chemistry at DePauw University in 1932. Julian helped Josef Pikl, a fellow student at the University of Vienna, to come to the United States to work with him at Depauw. In 1935 Julian and Pikl completed the total synthesis of physostigmine, and confirmed the structural formula assigned to it. Robert Robinson of Oxford University was the first to publish a synthesis of physostigmine, but Julian noticed that the melting point was wrong for Robinson's end product. When Julian completed his synthesis, the melting point matched the correct one for natural physostigmine from the calabar bean.^[1]

Julian also extracted stigmasterol, which took its name from Physostigma venenosum, the west African calabar bean that he hoped could serve as raw material for synthesis of human steroidal hormones. At about this time, 1934, Butenandt ,^[10] and Fernholz ^[11] ,in Germany, had shown that stigmasterol, isolated from soybean oil, could be converted to progesterone by synthetic organic chemistry.

Glidden

After being denied a professorship at DePauw in 1936 for racial reasons, Julian applied for a job at the Institute of Paper Chemistry (IPC) in Wisconsin. However, the Wisconsin city of Appleton where the institute was located, was a sundown town, forbidding African Americans from staying overnight. DuPont had offered a job to fellow chemist Josef Pikl, but declined to hire Julian, who had superlative qualifications as an organic chemist, apologizing that they were "unaware he was a Negro".

Julian wrote to the Glidden Company, a supplier of soybean oil products, to request a 5-gallon sample of the oil to use as his starting point for the synthesis of human steroidal sex hormones. After receiving the request, W.J. O'Brien, a vice-president at Glidden made a telephone call to Julian, offering him the position of director of research at Glidden's Soya Products Division in Chicago. He was very likely offered the job by O'Brien because he was fluent in German and Glidden had just purchased a modern continuous countercurrent solvent extraction plant from Germany for the extraction of vegetable oil from soybeans for paints and other uses.^[1]

Julian supervised the assembly of the plant at Glidden when he arrived in 1936. He then designed and supervised construction of the world's first plant for the production of industrial-grade, isolated soy protein from oil-free soybean meal. Isolated soy protein could replace the more expensive milk casein in industrial applications such as coating and sizing of paper, glue for making Douglas fir plywood, and in the manufacture of water-based paints.

At the start of WWII Glidden sent a sample of Julian's isolated soy protein to National Foam System Inc. (today a unit of Kidde Fire Fighting) of Philadelphia, PA which used it to develop Aero-Foam the US Navy's beloved fire-fighting "bean soup"; and while not exactly the brainchild of Percy Lavon Julian it was the meticulous care given to the preparation of the soy protein that made the fire fighting foam possible. When a hydrolyzate of isolated soy protein was fed into a water stream, the mixture was converted into a foam by means of an aerating nozzle. The soy protein foam was used to smother oil and gasoline fires aboard ships and was particularly useful on aircraft carriers. It saved the lives of thousands of sailors. ^[12] Citing this, in 1947 the NAACP awarded him the Spingarn Medal, its highest honor.

Steroids

Percy Lavon Julian (1899-1975) circa 1940-1950

Julian's research at Glidden changed in 1940 when he began work on synthesizing progesterone, estrogen and testosterone from the plant sterols, stigmasterol and sitosterol, isolated from soybean oil by a foam technique he invented. At that time clinicians were discovering many uses for the newly discovered sex hormones. However, only minute quantities could be produced from the extraction of hundreds of pounds of spinal cords, testicles or ovaries.

In 1940 Julian was able to produce 100 lb of mixed soy sterols daily, which had a value of $10,000, in sex hormones. Julian was soon ozonizing 100 pounds daily of mixed sterol dibromides. The result was the female hormone progesterone which was put on the American market in bulk for the first time. Production of other sex hormones soon followed. ^[13]

His work made possible the production of these hormones on a larger (kilogram) industrial scale, with the potential of reducing the cost of treating hormonal deficiencies. Julian and his co-workers obtained patents for Glidden on key processes for the preparation of progesterone and testosterone from soybean plant sterols. Product patents held by a former cartel of European pharmaceutical companies prevented a significant reduction in wholesale and retail prices for clinical use of these hormones in the 1940s.^[14][15][16]

On April 13, 1949, rheumatologist Philip Hench at the Mayo Clinic announced the dramatic effectiveness of cortisone in treating rheumatoid arthritis. The cortisone was produced by Merck at great expense using a complex 36-step synthesis developed by chemist Lewis Sarett. It started with deoxycholic acid from cattle bile acids. On September 30, 1949, Julian announced an improvement in the process of producing cortisone from bile acids. This eliminated the need to use osmium tetroxide (a rare and expensive chemical). By 1950, Glidden could begin producing closely related compounds which may have partial cortisone activity. Julian also announced the synthesis, starting with pregnenolone from soybean oil sterols of the steroid cortexolone and possibly 17α-hydroxyprogesterone and pregnenetriolone, which he hoped might also be effective in treating rheumatoid arthritis ^[17].^[18]

On April 5, 1952, biochemist Durey Peterson and microbiologist Herbert Murray at Upjohn published the first report of a fermentation process for the microbial 11α-oxygenation of steroids in a single step (by common molds of the order Mucorales). Their fermentation process could produce 11α-hydroxyprogesterone or 11α-hydroxycortisone from progesterone or Compound S, respectively, which could then by further chemical steps be converted to cortisone or 11β-hydroxycortisone (cortisol).^[19] After two years, Glidden abandoned production of cortisone from bile acids to concentrate on Compound S. Julian developed an excellent multistep process for conversion of pregnenolone, available in abundance from soybean oil sterols to cortexolone. In 1952, Glidden, which had been producing progesterone and other steroids from soybean oil, shut down its own production and began importing them from Mexico through an arrangement with Diosynth (a small Mexican company founded in 1947 by Russell Marker after leaving Syntex). Glidden's cost of production of cortexolone was relatively high, so Upjohn decided to use progesterone, available in large quantity at low cost from Syntex, to produce cortisone and hydrocortisone.^[20]

In 1953, Glidden decided to leave the steroid business which had been relatively unprofitable over the years despite Julian's innovative work.^[21] On December 1, 1953, Julian left Glidden after 18 years, giving up a salary of nearly $50,000 a year, to found his own company, Julian Laboratories, Inc., taking over the small, concrete-block building of Suburban Chemical Company in Franklin Park, Illinois.^[22][23]

On December 2, 1953, Pfizer and Syntex acquired exclusive licenses of Glidden patents for the synthesis of Compound S. Pfizer had developed a fermentation process for microbial 11β-oxygenation of steroids in a single step that could convert Compound S directly to 11β-hydrocortisone (cortisol), with Syntex undertaking large-scale production of cortexolone at very low cost.^[20]

Oak Park and Julian Laboratories

Around 1950 Julian moved his family from Chicago to the suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, where the Julians were the first African-American family.^[24] Although some residents welcomed them into the community, there was also opposition by some. Their home was fire-bombed on Thanksgiving Day, 1950, before they moved in. After the Julians had moved to Oak Park, the house was attacked with dynamite on June 12, 1951. The attacks galvanized the community and a community group was formed to support the Julians.^[25] Julian's son later recounted that during these times, he and his father often kept watch over the family's property by sitting in a tree with a shotgun.^[1]

In 1953, Julian founded his own research firm, Julian Laboratories, Inc. He brought many of his best chemists, including African Americans and women, from Glidden to his own company. Julian won a contract to provide Upjohn with $2 million worth of progesterone. To compete against Syntex, he would have to use the same Mexican yam as his starting material. Julian borrowed and used his own money to build a processing plant in Mexico, but he could not get a permit from the government to harvest the yams. Abraham Zlotnik found a new source of the yam in Guatemala for the company.

In July 1956, Julian and executives of two other American companies trying to enter the Mexican steroid intermediates market appeared before a U.S. Senate subcommittee. They testified that Syntex was using undue influence to monopolize access to the Mexican yam.^[16][26] The hearings resulted in Syntex signing a consent decree with the U.S. Justice Department. While it did not admit to restraining trade, it promised not to do so in the future.^[16] Within five years, large American multinational pharmaceutical companies had acquired all six producers of steroid intermediates in Mexico. Four had been Mexican-owned.^[16]

Syntex reduced the cost of bulk progesterone as an intermediate more than 250-fold over twelve years, from $80 per gram in 1943 to $0.31 per gram in 1955.^[16][26] Competition from Upjohn and General Mills, who had together made very substantial improvements in the production of progesterone from stigmasterol, forced the price of Mexican progesterone down to less than $0.15 per gram in 1957. The price continued to fall, bottoming out at $0.08 per gram in 1968.^[20][16] In 1958, Upjohn purchased 6,900 kg of progesterone from Syntex at $.135 per gram, 6,201 kg of progesterone from Searle (who had acquired Pesa) at $0.143 per gram, 5,150 kg of progesterone from Julian Laboratories at $0.14 per gram, and 1,925 kg of progesterone from General Mills (who had acquired Protex) at $0.142 per gram.^[27]

Despite continually falling bulk prices of steroid intermediates, an oligopoly of large American multinational pharmaceutical companies kept the wholesale prices of corticosteroid drugs fixed and unchanged into the 1960s. Cortisone was fixed at $5.48 per gram from 1954, hydrocortisone fixed at $7.99 per gram from 1954, and prednisone fixed at $35.80 per gram from 1956.^[16][27] Merck and Roussel Uclaf concentrated on improving the production of corticosteroids from cattle bile acids. In 1960 Roussel produced almost one-third of the world's corticosteroids from bile acids.^[20]

One year Julian Laboratories chemists found a way to quadruple the yield on a product on which they were barely breaking even. Julian reduced their price for the product from $4,000 per kg down to $400 per kg.^[1] He sold the company in 1961, for $2.3 million dollars.^[28] The U.S. and Mexico facilities were purchased by Smith Kline and Julian's chemical plant in Guatemala was purchased by Upjohn.

In 1964, Julian founded Julian Associates and Julian Research Institute, which he managed for the rest of his life.^[29]

National Academy of Sciences

He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1973 in recognition of his scientific achievements. He was the second African American to be inducted, after David Blackwell.

Death

Julian died of liver cancer on April 19, 1975 in St. Theresa's Hospital in Waukegan, Illinois and was buried in Elm Lawn Cemetery in Elmhurst, Illinois.^[3][30][31]

Legacy

• In 1950, the Chicago Sun-Times named Percy Julian the Chicagoan of the Year. ^[5]
• In 1975, Percy L. Julian High School was opened on the south side of Chicago, Illinois as a Chicago Public High School.
• In 1985, Hawthorne School in Oak Park was renamed Percy Julian Middle School in his honor.^[32]
• In 1980, the science and mathematics building on the DePauw University campus was rededicated as the Percy L. Julian Mathematics and Science Center. In Greencastle, Indiana, where DePauw is located, a street was named after Julian.
• Illinois State University, where Julian served on the board of trustees, named a hall after him.^[33]
• In 1993 Julian was honored on a stamp issued by the United States Postal Service.^[34]
• In 1999, the American Chemical Society recognized Julian's synthesis of physostigmine as one of the top 25 achievements in the history of American chemistry.^[35]
• In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Percy Lavon Julian on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.^[36]

Archive

The Percy Lavon Julian family papers are archived at DePauw University. ^[37]

Patents

• U.S. Patent 2,218,971, 10/22/1940, Recovery of sterols
• U.S. Patent 2,373,686; Jul 15, 1942; Phosphatide Product And Method Of Making
• U.S. Patent 2,752,339, 6/26/1956, Preparation of cortisone
• U.S. Patent 3,149,132, 9/15/1964, 16-Aminomenthyl-17-alkyltestosterone derivatives
• U.S. Patent 3,274,178, 9/20/1966, Method for preparing 16(alpha)-hydroxypregnenes and intermediates obtained therein
• U.S. Patent 3,761,469; September 25, 1973; Process For The Manufacture Of Steroid Chlorohydrins; with Arnold Lippert Hirsch

Publications

• Studies in the Indole Series. I. The Synthesis of Alpha-Benzylindoles; Percy L. Julian, Josef Pikl; J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1933, 55(5), pp 2105–2110.
• Studies in the Indole Series. V. The Complete Synthesis of Physostigmine (Eserine); Percy L. Julian, Josef Pikl; J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1935, 57(4), pp 755–757.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} "NOVA: Forgotten Genius". NOVA (TV series). http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/3402_julian.html. Retrieved 2007-02-13. 
2. ^ ^{a b} 1930 US Census; Greencastle, Indiana with Julians; James owned his own home valued at $3,000. Percy Julian's siblings were James Sumner Julian II (1903-?) (Honorary Depauw 1970); Mattie Julian Brown (c1905-1992) (Depauw 1926); Elizabeth Julian White (c1907-2007) (Depauw 1928); Irma D. Julian Raybon (1912-1990) (Depauw 1933); and Emerson R. Julian (1917-1978) (Depauw 1938).
3. ^ ^{a b} "Milestones". Time (magazine). May 5, 1975. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,913041,00.html. Retrieved 2007-02-14. "Died. Percy L. Julian, 76, prolific black research chemist; of cHarvard and the University of Vienna on his way to garnering over 130 chemical patents." 
4. ^ Julian family in the 1900 U.S. Census; Montgomery, Alabama; He lived with his wife's siblings: Mather P. Adams (1884-?); George Adams (1886-?); Carrie L. Adams (1891-?); Ethel M. Adams (1893-?). James is listed as a mail carrier.
5. ^ ^{a b c} "Life Chronology". DePauw University. http://www.depauw.edu/library/archives/percyjulian/chronology.asp. Retrieved 2007-02-14. 
6. ^ "Percy L. Julian Is Awarded Doctorate in Chemistry.". Washington Post. August 2, 1931. "Percy L. Julian, associate professor and acting head of the department of chemistry of Howard University, has been awarded his doctorate in chemistry at the University of Vienna, his achievement being a combination of two years' residence abroad and the transfer of graduate credit from Harvard University." 
7. ^ "Julian Will Do Research in Chemistry in Austrian Universities.". Washington Post. June 9, 1929. "Nine members of the faculty of the college of liberal arts of Howard University have been granted leaves of absence for graduate study during 1929-1930, and one for two years beginning with the fall of 1929. Percy L. Julian will study organic chemistry and microanalysis at the University of Vienna and at Graz University." 
8. ^ "St. Elmo Brady". University of Illinois. http://chemistry.uiuc.edu/bios/brady.html. Retrieved 2007-02-14. 
9. ^ Lamb, Yvonne Shinhoster (2008-03-26), "Civil Rights Lawyer Percy Julian Jr., 67", Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/25/AR2008032503563.html, retrieved 2009-11-15 
10. ^ A. Butenandt,U. Westphal and H.Cobler, Berichte Deutsche chemische Gesellschaft,,67, 1611-1616, 2085-2087(1934)
11. ^ E. Fernholz, Berichte Deutsche chemische Gesellschaft, 67 ,2027-2031 (1934)
12. ^ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,850791,00.html
13. ^ Bernhard Witkop. "Percy Lavon Julian. 1899-1975." in Biographical Memoirs. National Academy of Sciences, 52(1980).223-266.
14. ^ "Sex hormones in legal battle". Bus Week: 46–50. December 22, 1945. 
15. ^ "Mexican hormones". Fortune 43 (5): 86–90, 161–2, 166, 168. May 1951. 
16. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Gereffi, Gary (1983). The pharmaceutical industry and dependency in the Third World. Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 53–163. ISBN 0691094012. 
17. ^ unfortunately they were not
18. ^ Gibbons, Roy (September 30, 1949). "Science gets synthetic key to rare drug; discovery is made in Chicago". Chicago Tribune: 1. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/494372192.html?dids=494372192:494372192&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Sep+30%2C+1949&author=ROY+GIBBONS&pub=Chicago+Daily+Tribune+(1872-1963)&edition=&startpage=1&desc=SCIENCE+GETS+SYNTHETIC+KEY+TO+RARE+DRUG. 
19. ^ Peterson DH, Murray, HC (1952). "Microbiological oxygenation of steroids at carbon 11" (PDF). J Am Chem Soc 74 (7): 1871–2. doi:10.1021/ja01127a531. http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/abstract.cgi/jacsat/1952/74/i07/f-pdf/f_ja01127a531.pdf. 
20. ^ ^{a b c d} Applezweig, Norman (1962). Steroid drugs. New York: Blakiston Division, McGraw-Hill. pp. vii-xi, 9–83. 
21. ^ Shurtleff, William; Aoyagi, Akiko (2004). "History of the Glidden Company's Soya Products / Chemurgy Division". The Soy Daily. http://www.thesoydailyclub.com/MOS/pioneerco2.cfm. Retrieved 2007-02-24. 
22. ^ "Julian leaves Glidden. Will Head Own Firm.". Chicago Tribune. December 2, 1953. pp. C6. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/504442072.html?dids=504442072:504442072&FMT=CITE&FMTS=CITE:AI&type=historic&date=Dec+2%2C+1953&author=&pub=Chicago+Daily+Tribune+(1872-1963)&edition=&startpage=C6&desc=JULIAN+LEAVES+GLIDDEN. 
23. ^ "Julian aids mankind with his knowledge". Chicago Tribune. January 6, 1963. pp. 1. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/581177362.html?dids=581177362:581177362&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Jan+6%2C+1963&author=CLAY+GOWRAN&pub=Chicago+Daily+Tribune+(1872-1963)&edition=&startpage=1&desc=Julian+Aids+Mankind+with+His+Knowledge. 
24. ^ "From Dreams to Determination: The Legacy of Doctors Percy and Anna Julian". Dusable Museum. http://www.dusablemuseum.org. Retrieved 2007-02-13. 
25. ^ "Arson Fails at Home of Negro Scientist.". New York Times. November 23, 1950. "Chicago, November 22, 1950. An attempt was made tonight to burn down the expensive home that Dr. Percy Julian, 51 years old, internationally known Negro research chemist, recently purchased in one of the most exclusive sections in suburban Oak Park." 
26. ^ ^{a b} United States Senate (1957). Wonder drugs : hearings before the Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights of the Committee on the Judiciary, US Senate, 84th Congress, 2nd session, pursuant to S. Res. 167, on licensing of United States Government owned patents; removal of obstacles to the production of essential materials from the cheapest source for the manufacture of cortisone and other hormones. July 5 and 6, 1956.. Washington: US Government Printing Office. pp. 114–5. 
27. ^ ^{a b} United States Senate (1960). Administered prices : hearings before the Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly of the Committee on the Judiciary, US Senate, 86th Congress, 1st session, pursuant to S. Res. 57; Part 14: Administered Prices in the Drug Industry (Corticosteroids). December 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12, 1959.. Washington: US Government Printing Office. pp. 7884, 8296. 
28. ^ "Inflation calculator". http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl. Retrieved 2007-02-14. "Worth $15.6 million in inflation adjusted 2007 dollars" 
29. ^ "DePauw Archives biography". Depauw University. http://www.depauw.edu/library/archives/percyjulian/biography.asp. Retrieved 2007-02-13. 
30. ^ "Dr. Percy Julian, Chemist, 76, Dies.". New York Times. April 21, 1975. "Leader in the Fight for Civil Rights Was Synthesizer of Cortisone Drugs. Dr. Percy L. Julian, an internationally known research chemist and a leader in the fight for civil rights, died Saturday in St. Theresa's Hospital, Waukegan, Illinois. He was 76 years old and lived in Oak Park, Illinois." 
31. ^ "Dr. Percy Julian, Chemist, Dies". Washington Post. April 22, 1975. "Dr. Percy Lavon Julian, 76, an internationally known organic chemist and noted civil rights leader, died Saturday in St. Theresa's Hospital in Waukegan, Illinois." 
32. ^ http://www.op97.k12.il.us/julian/bio/honors.html
33. ^ "Percy L. Julian High School". http://www.pljulianhs.net. Retrieved 2007-02-13. 
34. ^ "Black Heritage Stamps". International Information Programs. U.S. Department of State. 2005. http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/blackhis/stamps.htm. Retrieved 2007-02-18. 
35. ^ "Synthesis of Physostigmine". American Chemical Society. http://acswebcontent.acs.org/landmarks/landmarks/plj/index.html. Retrieved 2007-02-13. 
36. ^ Asante, Molefi Kete (2002). 100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Amherst, New York. Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-57392-963-8.
37. ^ "Percy Lavon Julian (1899-1975) archive". Depauw University. http://www.depauw.edu/library/archives/dpuinventories/julian_percy_lavon_family.htm. Retrieved 2007-02-14. 

Further reading

• Weissmann, Gerald (2005), "Cortisone and the burning cross. The story of Percy Julian", The Pharos of Alpha Omega Alpha-Honor Medical Society. Alpha Omega Alpha 68 (1): 13–6, PMID 15792073 
• Kyle, R A; Shampo, M A (1996), "Stamp vignette on medical science. Percy Lavon Julian--industrial chemist", Mayo Clin. Proc. 71 (12): 1170, 1996 Dec, PMID 8945489 
• Cobb, W M (1971), "Percy Lavon Julian, Ph.D., Sc.D., LL.D., L.H.D., 1899- ?", Journal of the National Medical Association 63 (2): 143–50, 1971 Mar, PMID 4928023 

Percy Julian, Chemist Extraordinaire [1]

External links

Pharmacy and Pharmacology portal

• Percy Julian Chemistry and Civil Rights Resources from Teachers' Domain
• Bernhard Witkop memoir of Julian
• Profile of Percy Julian - The Black Inventor Online Museum
• Chemical Heritage Foundation
• Percy Julian at Find-A-Grave
• Julian Archives at DePauw University
• PBS Nova documentary and video
• Video of a talk by Nova producer Steve Lyons on the creation of the Percy Julian PBS documentary
• "Glidden Company History". Glidden Company. http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/The-Glidden-Company-Company-History.html. Retrieved 2007-02-14. 

Persondata
NAME	Percy Lavon Julian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	African-American chemist
DATE OF BIRTH	April 11, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH	Montgomery, Alabama, United States
DATE OF DEATH	April 19, 1975
PLACE OF DEATH	Waukegan, Illinois, United States

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