Shoes for Everyone: A Story about Jan Matzeliger
AUTHOR
ILLUSTRATOR
TYPE
AGE
Teen - 4th-9th Grade, Age 9-14
READABILITY
5.7
PAGES
63 p. ;
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CATEGORIES
SUBJECTS
PUBLISHER
Publisher Summary
Jan Matzeliger felt anything but welcome in Philadelphia in 1873. As well as being a foreigner, Jan was half African American, which meant that most doors were closed to him. Although the Civil War had been over for nearly ten years, inequality for African Americans still persisted in its aftermath. However, Jan refused to let prejudice keep him from achieving his dream of making a shoe-lasting machine to replace the tedious, time-consuming hand sewing that held up shoe manufacturing processes in his day.