The marker marked the home site which belonged to Dr. Percy Lavon Julian. This is what I learned about Dr. Julian. He was born in Montgomery, Alabama on April 11, 1899; his father was a railway mail clerk, and his grandfather was a slave. He grew up with a father and mother that stressed academic success. When he became a teenager the family moved to Greencastle, Indiana, home of DePauw University. 

All six of the Julian children matriculated at DePauw. In 1920 he graduated Phi Beta Kappa as class valedictorian. He was encouraged by his father to go into medicine, where he could be more independent, however he decided to pursue chemistry. He taught at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee until 1923. He later applied for a research fellowship at Harvard. He earned his Master’s degree in a year finishing in the top group of his class. If he had been white he would have been awarded a teaching assistant position, but he was told that white students from the South would not accept him as a teacher. He earned his PHD from the University of Vienna in 1931. He would return to the south and teach at all black schools. After teaching at Howard for one year he was appointed head of the chemistry department. Dr. Percy Lavon Julian is credited with the following inventions: drug for Glaucoma; developed a process for isolating and preparing soya protein, which led to a number of inventions. He discovered a technique for mass producing the hormones testosterone and progesterone. 

The invention of Compound S is considered Dr. Julian’s most significant discovery. Compound S could mimic the effects of natural cortisone in the body. Natural cortisone was a recognized treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and other illnesses which caused muscle pain. Before Dr. Julian’s discovery it would require the bile from nearly 15000 oxen to treat a single patient for a year. The limited supply of cortisone made it impractical as a treatment option. Dr. Julian patented nearly 130 other chemical innovations. Dr. Percy Julian a native of Montgomery, Alabama died in April of 1975 from liver cancer. He was 76 years old. 

Shortly before his death, he announced that he was satisfied with his life’s work. He proclaimed that “I have had one goal in my life, “that of playing some role in making life a little easier for the persons who come after me.” If you have the opportunity to visit South Holt Street you will find the historical marker near the famous church where Dr. Martin Luther King addressed 5000 black residents of Montgomery, Alabama the night they launched the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It was an awesome experience to stand on the site where this great man lived. So chances are if you ask me where I will summer, my response will most likely be the same as my friend: “I will summer the same place that I winter and fall, in my own backyard. 

 In the words of my dad, “You must honor the chair whether it is sitting, walking or lying down.”