When you get real old, honey, says Bessie Delany, you lay it all on the table. There's an old saying: Only little children and old folks tell the truth. In Having Our Say Bessie, age 101, and her sister Sadie, age 103, do just that-and then some. Filled with humorous and poignant anecdotes, this inspiring dual memoir offers a rare glimpse of the birth of black freedom- and the rise of the black middle class-in America. It is a chronicle of remarkable achievement. Sadie and Bessie Delany recall growing up with eight other siblings in turn-of-the-century North Carolina: their father was born in slavery, yet became the nation's first elected black Episcopal bishop; their mother could have passed for white but chose not to. With irrepressible pluck, the sisters confronted the first days of Jim Crow and legal segregation, and took part in the World War I-era migration North, rising to professional prominence during the heyday of Harlem. Along the way they met such legendary figures as black leaders Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois and entertainers Cab Calloway and Lena Home. Both sisters favored careers over marriage, despite many opportunities. Later, they settled in the still partly-rural Bronx, then integrated a suburban neighborhood in the '50s. Each has triumphed in her own way:
Queen Bess with feistiness; Sweet Sadie with quiet determination. Though warmly skeptical of each other's style, they remain devoted. She may be one- hundred-and-one years old, comments Sadie, but she's still my little sister. Today they are fragile, yet fiercely independent. They still live alone in their own house. They make their own peach preserves and their own soap, and don't own a telephone (it's the biggest nuisance invented by mankind). Radio keeps them informed-and their opinions on current events are to be reckoned with. Sadie and Bessie Delany's lifelong insights provide us with a priceless oral history of our nation's past century. And what they have to say shows us, as no one else can, where we've been, how far we've come...and how far we have to go.
NY Newsday In fact, this must be the nicest show and inspirational pep rally in town...what a life these women have led, and how lovely to hear about America's real history from witnesses who are such good company. The Delany sisters may seem too good to be true, but here they are.

Having our say : the Delany sisters' first 100 years

HAVING OUR SAY,SARAH

Paul De Angelis,Sarah Louise Delany,A. Elizabeth Delany,Amy Hill Hearth,Sarah Delany

Sarah Louise Delany; Annie Elizabeth Delany; Amy Hill Hearth

Sarah and A. Elizabeth Delany; with Amy Hill Hearth

Kodansha America, Incorporated

Kodansha USA Inc

Kodansha Globe

United States, United States of America

July 8, 1997

1st, 1997

some text/cut text is close to the gutter due too tight binding inherent from the source.

subject: Delaney family; Delany, Sarah Louise, 1889-; Delany, Annie Elizabeth, 1891-1995; African Americans

contributor: Internet Archive

format: Image/Djvu(.djvu)

rights: The access limited around the compus-network users

unit_name: Internet Archive

topic: Delaney family; Delany, Sarah Louise, 1889-; Delany, Annie Elizabeth, 1891-1995; African Americans

Type: 英文图书

Bookmarks:
1. (p1) Preface
2. (p2) part I Sweet Sadie, Queen Bess
3. (p3) part II "I Am Free!"
4. (p4) part III Saint Aug's
5. (p5) part IV Jim Crow Days
6. (p6) part V Harlem-Town
7. (p7) part VI Ties That Bind
8. (p8) part VII Outliving the Rebby Boys

theme: Delaney family; Delany, Sarah Louise, 1889-; Delany, Annie Elizabeth, 1891-1995; African Americans

Warm, feisty, and intelligent, the Delany sisters speak their mind in a book that is at once a vital historical record and a moving portrait of two remarkable women who continued to love, laugh and embrace life after over 100 years of living side by side. Their sharp memories show readers the post-reconstruction South and Booker T. Washington; Harlem's Golden age and Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Dubois and Paul Robeson. Bessie breaks barriers to become a dentist; Sadie quietly integrates the New York City system as a schoolteacher

xiii, 210 p. : 25 cm
This book chronicles the experiences of two African-American women growing up in North Carolina at the turn-of-the-century. Coauthors are Annie Elizabeth Delany and Amy Hill Hearth
Accelerated Reader UG 5.9 9

xiii, 210 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm890L Lexile

2023-06-28