His house was firebombed. A scandalous affair got him fired in the middle of the Depression. The doors of academia were slammed in his face, since no one expected an African American to rise higher than teaching high school. Yet Percy Julian overcame every obstacle to become a world-class scientist, a self-made millionaire, and a civil rights pioneer.

Produced in the lavish style of NOVA's Emmy Award-winning "Galileo's Battle for the Heavens," Percy Julian's gripping and largely unknown story is full of vivid period reenactments based on newly accessible family archives and interviews with dozens of Julian's colleagues and relatives.

Tuesday, 2/5/08 from 8-10 p.m. ET