 singing God Bless America at the end. Boy, I wish we could have that again. American opportunity has no limits, has been known to knock more than once. How about you very young people who see a tough life ahead? Well, when Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, Booker T. Washington was a nine-year-old slave. Yet by the time he was 28, he became president of Tuskegee Institute.