Coming Soon

"Beyond the Mason" tells the stories of how African American thirteen to seventeen year olds  left Jim Crow South to live with white northern host families to complete the last two years of high school from the late 1950s-60s-70s. Now in their seventies, their reflections of life beyond the Mason Dixon Line speak to roots of southern Black culture, and northern opportunities giving flight to their dreams and aspirations. The continuing impact of broadened education and culture have become their legacies.

From 1957 to about 1977 during the extreme civil unrest and turmoil in the United States and abroad, these teenagers were ambassadors of peace, quietly and bravely bridging the gap of hatred and prejudice with familiarity and understanding. Their innocent courage led the way for countless personal experiences of Euro-Americans with a Negro for the first time. And numerous encounters with northern Afro-Americans who had never met a southern Negro.

The undeniably nutrient-packed African American roots of these students from their families, schools, churches, and neighborhoods gave these Negro children a foundation which was enhanced and enriched through the educational and cultural programs of uplift. Joining Bonnyeclaire are the voices of students from the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Southern Negro Student Project and other programs who reflect on the continuing impact of their experiences Beyond the Mason.