Temple University Press authors Deborah Willis and Barbara Krauthamer's book, Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery, has won an NAACP Image Award for “Outstanding Literary Work—Non-Fiction.” The 45th Annual NAACP Image Awards ceremony took place Feb. 21 and 22 in Pasadena, Calif.

Through 150 photographs—some never before published—the book depicts what freedom looked like for black Americans in the Civil War era. Envisioning Emancipation also has been named one of the “Top 25 Outstanding Academic Titles” by Choice, a journal of the Association of College and Research Libraries. It also was recognized by the American Library Association Black Caucus. 

“Our editor, Janet Francendese, and everybody at Temple University Press really put a tremendous amount of work and effort into helping us create the most beautiful book possible,” said Krauthamar, associate professor of history at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. “Everyone was very supportive of this project.”

The NAACP Image Awards celebrate the accomplishments of people of color in the fields of television, music, literature and film, and honor individuals or groups who promote social justice through creative endeavors.

“We are honored to receive this prestigious award,” said Krauthamer when she accepted the award. “When we dreamed of this book 10 years ago, we wanted to create a collective family album of photographs that showed African-American survival, dignity and beauty, even through the most trying times of slavery and the triumph of emancipation and freedom.”