Dr. Walter Curry
Dr. Walter Curry, founder of Renaissance Publications, LLC, says his dedication to publishing family histories, or genealogies, came from his mother. She was the storyteller of the family and loved to tell him the stories of generations before.
Curry has published his second book, The Awakening— The Seawright– Ellison Family Saga, Vol. I, A Narrative History, which is the story of two families who shared a common ancestor, Martha Kitchens Seawright–Ellison, a woman born in slavery in 1849 in Aiken County. Seawright–Ellison was married twice, thus creating two families of descendants who stayed in the Aiken County for many generations.
The Awakening is a narrative, telling anecdotal history gained through oral stories passed down through the generations. Curry also conducted numerous family interviews and online archival research. The Awakening is the story of the African American people surviving and striving to make a life in South Carolina from the Civil War to Reconstruction Era, through the Civil Rights Era and on to today.
Tommy Ellison spent his childhood in Salley, South Carolina. As a young man, he moved with his parents to Harlem in New York City. This placed him in the midst of the Harlem Renaissance. His grandmother in Aiken County said he was born to “sing for the Lord” and his career developed to bring him great notoriety as a performer of African American gospel. Ellison is known as “Mr. Superstar of Gospel.” He was the lead singer for the Staley Brothers, the Harmonizing Four, and then the Five Singing Stars.
Floster L. Ellison Jr., another member of the Seawright– Ellison family, developed as a leader in the state of South Carolina as a result of the progress of the civil rights movement. In the 1960s, he owned his own barber shop, Ellison & Story, in the historic African American business district in downtown Columbia.
Driven by ambition, Ellison moved beyond working in his barber shop to founding the Palmetto State Barbers Association. He helped develop standards to bring professionalism to the trade of barbers and was hired to travel the state to inspect barber shops, owned by both white and African American men, for many years.
Ellison was later hired as a case worker at Palmetto State Hospital, the segregated hospital for African Americans operated by the South Carolina Department of Mental Health. His contribution to S.C.’s mental health system continued as he was appointed chief of social services. In 1965, the South Carolina Department of Mental Health integrated, and the Palmetto Hospital was renamed Crafts-Farrow State Hospital.
Most of the family history in The Awakening are the stories of slave women and men during the Civil War. Other stories involve those who navigated the opportunities and challenges of sharecropping and those whose lives were changed during the Reconstruction Era. In later years, many of these family members had more opportunities to work at mills such as Pacific Mills in Columbia, to learn trades and earn income as employees or to own their own businesses.
Curry captures the personalities and basic character of those members of his family who he studied from conversations with family members and friends who knew them.
Curry provides a personal glimpse of Roosevelt Seawright, who worked as a brick mason in the late 1950s and 1960s.
Curry writes, “Roosevelt was very ambitious, stern, and self-conscious. Roosevelt was very conscious of his appearance. Roosevelt loved food and was very particular about his food. Roosevelt believed a home should be cleaned, with everyone doing their part, and he would suffer no fools when it came to himself and his family… Roosevelt made sure his family had the necessities of living and instilled a work ethic among his children and grandchildren.”
Curry’s family history meets the standards of the Genealogical Proof Standard (GPS). These standards reflect the guiding principles of the American National Genealogical Society.
More information about Dr. Walter Curry and Renaissance Publishing can be found on www.renaissancepubllc.com.