Welcome from the Founder/CEO

We are living in trying times throughout the world, and we must reach out and embrace, appreciate, and uplift our diversity. FAM is committed to making an impact through workshops, public programs and films. As such, FAM board members and consultants present programs in diverse spaces (including Amish), encouraging Americans to embrace the truth of our kinships and commonalities. The planned release of our first documentary* is in 2024. 

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*The documentary is based on the life of Charley Mast as revealed in the book "Kinship Concealed Amish-Mennonite-African-American Family Connections" by Dwight Roth and myself. The book follows the travels and travails of the famous Mast brothers, including their estrangement from each other and subsequent divergent paths, with Jacob Mast becoming America's first Bishop of the Amish Church and his brother John denouncing the Amish Church in favor of the slave trade. The screenplay focuses on Charley, John's alleged African progeny and my great great grandfather. Charley accomplished many extraordinary feats, including becoming a successful businessman and landowner, establishing a Freedom Colony, registering to vote in Nacogdoches, Texas in 1869, and living to a ripe old age, in spite of it all. As Black and White progenies of Jacob and John, the screenplay also explores the relationship between the book's co-authors as they deal with these life altering discoveries and build a lasting friendship. 

 

Feel free to visit our website regularly for updates. You are so welcome! 

  - Sharon Hill Cranford, PhD