Dr. Walter B. Curry Jr., a founder of Renaissance Publications LLC and graduate of South Carolina State University, received the 2022 International African American Historical and Genealogy Society Book Award in the Regional Genealogy category for his publication titled “The Awakening: The Seawright-Ellison Family Saga, Vol.1, A Narrative History.”

The award was presented during the virtual International African American Historical & Genealogical Society Book Awards ceremony during the African American Historical & Genealogical Society Conference held October 12-15. Winners were honored for their outstanding publications that accurately examines and portrays African American history and genealogy in a wide variety of genres both fiction and non-fiction, for adults and young readers.

“The Awakening: The Seawright-Ellison Family Saga, Vol.1, A Narrative History” is a collection of stories about the descendants of two families that share a common ancestor, Martha Kitchings Seawright Ellison, born into slavery, in 1849, in Aiken County, South Carolina. The book includes the stories of Curry’s great-grandfather, Robert L. Seawright, cousins Ulysses Kitchings and Floster L. Ellison Jr., who all lived in the Sawyerdale community of western Orangeburg County.