Breath Of My Ancestors Minute 3-20-17

On this day… March 20, 1883 - Jan. E. Matzeliger received the patent for his automatic Shoe Last Machine. When folk talk about making America great again or taking their country back they have no idea that they owe the very shoes on their feet to a black man of Suriname descent. His invention held a shoe on a last, pulled the leather down around the heel, set the nails, drove in the nails, and then discharged the completed shoe. It had the capacity to produce 700 pairs of shoes a day—more than 10 times the amount produced by shoemakers of that time. The Unite States commissioned a ”Black Heritage" postage stamp in Matzeliger's honor. This has been another Breath of My Ancestors Minute w/Ty Gray-EL…We Must Never Forget