In 1935, a brilliant young chemist achieved what some of the world’s leading academic institutions believed was impossible: synthesizing physostigmine, a compound crucial for treating glaucoma. Yet, despite his landmark chemical synthesis, Percy Lavon Julian was denied a full professorship at DePauw University simply because he was Black.
Undeterred by academic Jim Crow laws, Julian pivoted to industry, where he built a pioneering career extracting and synthesizing vital hormones and steroids from the humble soybean. His scientific triumphs—achieved against a backdrop of firebombings, death threats, and institutional exclusion—transformed modern medicine by making life-saving treatments like cortisone accessible to millions.
From the Jim Crow South to Europe’s Top Chemistry Labs
Born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1899, Percy Julian grew up in the deeply segregated South. His grandparents had been enslaved, and his parents pushed their children toward higher education despite severe systemic barriers.
When Julian enrolled at DePauw University in Indiana in 1916, he was forced to take high school makeup classes alongside his college coursework due to the inferior quality of segregated schools in Alabama. He was denied on-campus housing and slept in an off-campus fraternity house attic in exchange for waiting tables.
Julian's Academic Triumph Against the Odds
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├─► DePauw University (1920) ───► Graduated Valedictorian (Phi Beta Kappa)
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├─► Harvard University (1923) ──► Earned Master's (Denied TA position due to race)
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└─► University of Vienna (1931) ─► Doctorate in Chemistry under Ernst Späth
At Harvard, Julian completed his Master’s degree, but the university refused to grant him a teaching assistantship—a necessary step for a PhD—fearing white students would protest being taught by a Black instructor. Seeking opportunities abroad, Julian earned his doctorate at the University of Vienna in Austria, studying plant alkaloids under world-renowned organic chemist Ernst Späth.
The Breakthrough Synthesis of Physostigmine
Returning to DePauw as a research fellow, Julian took on one of the most competitive challenges in organic chemistry: synthesizing physostigmine, a natural alkaloid found in the Calabar bean used to treat glaucoma.
A famous Oxford chemist, Sir Robert Robinson, had published a claimed synthesis of physostigmine. Julian boldly published a paper asserting Robinson’s melting points were wrong and that his synthesis was flawed.
The Physostigmine Race (1935)
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├─► Sir Robert Robinson (Oxford) ──► Claimed synthesis with incorrect melting points
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└─► Percy Julian (DePauw) ─────────► Proved Robinson wrong & synthesized total compound
In 1935, Julian completed the total synthesis of pure physostigmine, proving his chemical route was correct and solidifying his reputation as a master organic chemist. Despite this triumph, DePauw declined to offer him a permanent faculty position due to his race.
The Soybean Breakthroughs at Glidden
Denied academic tenure, Julian took a job as Director of Research at the Glidden Company in Chicago, a major paint and varnish manufacturer. Glidden wanted Julian to explore industrial applications for soybean oil and proteins.
Julian’s genius was transforming industrial waste into valuable medical breakthroughs. In 1939, a water leak accidentally seeped into a 28,000-gallon tank of soybean oil, creating a strange white sludge. Rather than discarding it, Julian recognized the sludge contained stigmasterol, a plant sterol that could be converted into human hormones.
Julian's Soybean Hormone Synthesis
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├─► Water-Leak Sludge ──► Isolated Stigmasterol (Plant Sterol)
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├─► Mass Production ───► Mass-synthesized Progesterone & Testosterone
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└─► Cortisone Breakthrough ─► Synthesized Compound S for affordable Cortisone
At the time, human hormones like progesterone (essential for preventing miscarriages) and testosterone were extracted from animal organs at astronomical costs. Julian engineered a process to mass-produce progesterone from soybean sterols on an industrial scale, dropping the price of the hormone from $200 per gram to mere dollars.
Later, when cortisone was discovered as a revolutionary treatment for rheumatoid arthritis—selling for an astonishing $4,000 per ounce—Julian developed a chemical pathway to synthesize Compound S, a direct precursor to cortisone, reducing the cost to a fraction of its original price.
Confronting Racial Terror in Oak Park
In 1950, Julian purchased a home in the affluent, predominantly white suburb of Oak Park, Illinois. The arrival of a successful Black scientist and his family triggered severe racial hostility.
Racial Violence in Oak Park
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├─► Thanksgiving Eve, 1950 ──► Firebombed before the family moved in
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└─► June 1951 ───────────────► Dynamite attack launched at the home
Before the family even moved in, arsonists firebombed the house on Thanksgiving Eve in 1950. A year later, a dynamite bomb was thrown from a passing car onto their front lawn while Julian’s children were inside.
Julian refused to be intimidated. He sat on his front porch with a shotgun to protect his family and continued going to his laboratory every morning, refusing to sell his property or abandon his scientific work.
Julian Laboratories and Lasting Legacy
In 1953, Julian left Glidden to launch Julian Laboratories, where he expanded his work on steroid synthesis. He later sold the company for over $2 million, making him one of the wealthiest Black entrepreneurs in America at the time.
Key Historical Achievements
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├─► Total Synthesis of Physostigmine (1935)
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├─► Mass Synthesis of Progesterone & Cortisone from Soybeans
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├─► Second Black Scientist elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1973)
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└─► First Black Chemist featured on a U.S. Postage Stamp (1993)
Percy Julian died of liver cancer in 1975, leaving behind more than 130 patents and a legacy that fundamentally reshaped organic chemistry and pharmaceuticals. By using plant-based chemistry to democratize access to essential medicines, he proved that genius transcends racial barriers, even in the face of violent oppression.
