Stories of America, its people, places, history, culture and economy.
One place. One person. One story at a time.
About This American Mosaic
America is often described as a melting pot.
I've always thought a mosaic was a better description.
We're made up of different peoples, cultures, histories and places. Some were here long before America existed. Some came by choice, looking for freedom or opportunity. Others were brought here against their will. And all of those histories still shape the country we live in today.
So I decided to go looking for them.
This American Mosaic is my attempt to better understand America through the stories of its people, places, history, culture and economy.
I'm traveling through communities around the country, from the coal towns of southern West Virginia to Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Lakota lands in South Dakota, the Mississippi Delta and the West Side of San Antonio. Sometimes those stories take me much farther back, across oceans and centuries, to understand how the people who settled these places got here in the first place.
But the more I explore, the more I realize that the story of a place is about much more than its geography.
It's about the families who built it, the entrepreneurs who saw opportunity, the industries that created fortunes, the food and traditions that survived generations, and the decisions that shaped what came next.
Some stories will be personal journal entries from the road, about people I meet and things I discover. Others will follow American families across generations, celebrate remarkable entrepreneurs and historical figures, explore the foods and cultures that connect us, or ask bigger questions about America and its future.
I'll write about poverty and wealth, race and class, migration and identity, capitalism and philanthropy. But I also want to celebrate the ingenuity, ambition, resilience and extraordinary accomplishments of people and communities whose stories don't always get the attention they deserve.
Some of this overlaps with the work I'm doing to get more capital into the hands of children and communities that have been economically left behind. That work has made me increasingly curious about ownership, opportunity and why some places prosper while others struggle for generations.
I don't want to explore those questions only from Washington. I want to visit these places, meet the people, learn their histories and, more often than not, discover that whatever I thought I knew was incomplete.
I'm not trying to write a definitive history of America, and I certainly don't have all the answers.
I'm simply curious about how we got here, what makes this country so extraordinary, and what might come next.
One place. One person. One story at a time.
why I’m doing this
For most of the last 25 years, my professional life has been spent in politics and major-donor fundraising.
That has put me in some unusual rooms and introduced me to some extraordinary people.
But increasingly, I find myself more interested in what is happening outside those rooms.
Why do some American communities prosper while others seem to have been left behind?
Why does poverty persist for generations?
Why do some places lose their young people while others attract them?
How did ancestry, migration, race, industry, geography and government shape the people and places we know today?
Who owns the businesses, the land and the wealth?
And what happens when people who have historically been left outside the ownership economy finally get a stake in it?
I don't have all the answers.
That's sort of the point of the trip.
from the road
FIELD NOTES · PEOPLE · HISTORY · ECONOMICS · CAPITAL · OWNERSHIP
Stories and journal entries from the places I’m visiting.
Michael Byrd
I'm Michael Byrd.
For more than two decades, I’ve worked at the intersection of politics, philanthropy and major-donor fundraising.
Now I’m spending a lot more time on the road.
This American Mosaic grew out of my desire to better understand the communities we talk about so often—but rarely spend enough time actually listening to.
Some of that travel also overlaps with work I’m doing around capital and ownership in communities that have been economically left behind.
But this isn't supposed to be a policy paper or a definitive history of America.
It's a travel journal.
I'm going places, asking questions, meeting people and sharing what I learn along the way.
One place. One person. One story at a time.