George Washington Carver's Morning Prayer

Each day before dawn at Tuskegee Institute, George Washington Carver walked into the Alabama woods to pray. The formerly enslaved scientist, who could have pursued wealth at any prominent university, had committed his life's work to helping struggling Southern farmers survive. "Mr. Creator," he would whisper among the pine trees, "show me the secrets of Your universe." In 1914, the boll weevil devastated cotton crops across the South, threatening to destroy an already fragile economy.…