Our heritage was built on democracy, equality, and celebration. Explore little-known stories of our country’s past.
Welcome to America Comes Alive!, a site I created to share little-known stories of America’s past.
These stories are about Americans—people just like you—who have made a difference and changed the course of history. Look around the site and find what inspires you.
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National Park Week Celebration Continues: The Movies 100 Years Ago
Most of us love going to the movies. Whether we are there to be entertained, enlightened, or to be exposed to other worlds, we love sitting in the darkened theater to “be told a new story.”
One hundred years ago people had the same desire to see, to think about, to be entertained by stories, but of course, there were no films, not even silent movies. There were, however, cycloramas. These were panoramic paintings, usually of historical events, that were designed to be viewed by an audience that could move about on a central platform to examine the enormous painting that encircled them. During each viewing, a guide would tell the story of what was happening in the painting, often with musical accompaniment. The overall effect was to make audiences feel they were in the midst of the action.
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In Celebration of National Park Week
This is National Park Week (April 21-29) and it is a perfect time to pause and consider how fortunate we are for the Park Service and for the lands and monuments that Congress has designated to be national treasures. Whether you are interested in preserving parklands, maintaining areas that depict geological changes, or saving monuments and lands that tell our American story, the National Park Service provides an enormous service to the American people by safeguarding these lands as part of our national heritage.
And if you can possibly sneak away this week to visit one of the parks’ 394 properties, you should: those that charge admission are waiving fees for the week.
April 15 and the Story Behind Income Taxes
Every April 15 Americans face a day of tax reckoning. (When April 15 is a Sunday as it was this year, then the filing deadline is April 16, and this year the fact that Washington, D.C. is celebrating Emancipation Day as a holiday today has moved the filing deadline to April 17.)
How did Friday the 13th become a day surrounded by superstition?The U.S. Constitution: Explained in Less Than an Hour
The United States Constitution is one of the most influential political documents of all time, and it is the cornerstone that supports our liberty.
Whether you’re a parent, a teacher, or an interested citizen, what if you could explain the Constitution and the disagreements that led to its crafting in about an hour?
Susie King Taylor (1848-1912), Educator, Author, Activist
- First woman to openly teach former slaves at a school in Georgia.
- Only African-American woman to publish a memoir of her work during the Civil War: Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33d United States Colored Troops, Late 1st S.C. Volunteers.
Susie King was born in August1848 to a slave family in rural Georgia. When she was seven years old, her owners permitted her to move to Savannah to live with her grandmother who had been given her freedom.
Reginald Lewis (1942-1993), Self-Made Business Success
• First African-American businessman to make Forbes list of wealthiest people
• In 1992 donated largest gift from an individual in Harvard Law School’s history
