Download or read book Shoes for Everyone written by Barbara Mitchell and published by Millbrook Press. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.