Percy Lavon Julian Scientist, Chemist Scott # 2746  Issued January 29, 1993 in Chicago, Illinois  Designed by Higgins Bond

Percy Lavon Julian was born in Montgomery, Alabama on April 11, 1899.  Percy's mother encouraged her children to pursue higher education and all six children received advanced degrees.  Percy graduated from State Normal School for Negroes in 1916 at the top of his class and enrolled at DePauw University in Indiana. DePauw required Percy to take high school courses in addition to his college subjects because the education he had received at State Normal  was considered second rate.  In addition to this full course load, he also worked to support himself. He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society and graduated as the Class Valedictorian in 1920. 

Initially Percy was snubbed in his quest for a doctorial degree although white classmates with lower academic standing were granted fellowships. He began teaching at Fisk University in Tennessee and continued to work at obtaining a fellowship. 

Percy received an Austin Fellowship in 1922 and began his studies under E.P. Kohler at Harvard University.  He received his Master's Degree in 1923 as an organic chemist and accepted a position at West Virginia State College for Negroes.  In 1927 he became the head of the chemistry department at Howard University.

Percy attended the University of Vienna in Austria in 1929 under a Rockefeller fellowship. In Vienna he studied under the world renowned scientist, Ernst Spath. While attending the University, he aided Spath in his search for a method of synthesizing hormones and vitamins. This study so interested Percy that it became his life's work. He received his doctorate in 1931. 

Percy returned to DePauw and continued his research into synthesizing compounds from common plants such as the African calabar bean. In 1935 he synthesized a chemical called physostigmine, which was used in treating glaucoma by reducing pressure inside the eyeball. (Physostigmine is currently being explored for use in treating Alzheimer's Disease.)

Percy left DePauw in 1935 and went to work for Glidden Company in Chicago as their chief chemist and the Director of their Soya Product Division.  He married Anna Johnson on December 24, 1935. Percy invented a way to inexpensively develop male and female hormones from soy beans. These hormones helped to prevent miscarriages in pregnant women and were used to fight cancer. Julian developed Aero-Foam from soy protein during World War II which was in major use by the Navy during the war as a flame retardant. 

Cortisone was discovered in 1948. It is a compound that is useful in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, however it was very expensive, costing several hundred dollars for a small drop. Percy created  a synthetic version from soy products which cost less than a nickel an ounce.

He was named Chicagoan of the year in 1950. Despite all that Percy had accomplished for people, when he moved into the white neighborhood of Oak Park, his home was set on fire and a year later in 1951 dynamite thrown from a vehicle exploded beneath the bedroom window of his children.

In 1954 Percy established Julian Laboratories in Oak Park. The plant produced his synthetic cortisone. He sold the Oak Park plant in 1961 for 2.4 million dollars and founded the Julian Research Institute in 1964.

Percy Lavon Julian died of liver cancer on April 19, 1975 in Chicago, Illinois.

Sources: 
Encyclopedia Britannica  
Encyclopedia Africana