Percy Julian is best known for formulating a drug to treat glaucoma and for synthesizing sex hormones and cortisone. A native of Montgomery, Alabama, Julian, grandson of former slaves, was born first of six children on April 11, 1899. His mother, Elizabeth Lena Adams Julian, taught school; his father, James Sumner Julian, also a teacher, worked as a railroad mail clerk.

Julian graduated with the standard eight years of education from the State Normal School for Negroes in 1916, then took additional courses to prepare for a white college. In 1920, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and valedictorian of his class at DePauw University, where he lived in a fraternity house attic and earned tuition by waiting tables. Because doctoral programs passed over black students, he was unable to obtain a fellowship. For two years he taught chemistry at Fisk University, then received an Austin Fellowship to study at Harvard University, where...