At War44-02-0835George Washington Carver

My eyes are seeing the glory of the vintage weirder graves of wrath. Are you listening, President Lincoln? That's your theme song, sir. And you'll be hearing it plenty during these next few days. Because you see, sir, we still celebrate your birthday here in America.

And that's why tonight a small group of us have gotten together to bring you a birthday present. The kind of present we know you will like. It's a story, Mr. Lincoln. A story that's worth telling on this particular anniversary of your birth.

Why, you ask? Well, you see, Mr. President, we're at war again. A group of men rose up in Europe to proclaim that they were going to enslave the world. They've said an effect that you were a liar, sir.

They've said that all men are not created equal. that what they call the inferior and minority races can never amount to anything, and so we went to war with them, and were beating them. And we're resolved that never again will their philosophy creep into the minds of men.

But we know that it's not the color of a man's skin or the tenets of his creed, that the term and whether or not he can be great. And this story, one of hundreds we could tell you, proves that.

It's the story of a man you freed from slavery, Mr. Lincoln, the simple story of a great American. The story of a man whose work in years gone by is now helping us to win this greatest of all wars.

We hope you will like it, sir. The National Broadcasting Company, in cooperation with the Council on Books and War Time, presents the 35th in this Words at War series. Tonight we offer a character study of a great American based in large part upon Rackham Holst's best-selling biography, George Washington Carver.