Their own father had distinct memories of being freed as a slave. He became an Episcopal Bishop and made his children very cognizant of the value of education, given the advantages his schooling had given him, compared to other freed slaves. At St. Augustine's where the sisters were undergraduates Sadie even met Booker T. Washington, in another brush with history. For a woman to drive a car was extraordinary during that era but Sadie "got to be a good driver, and when Mr. Booker T. Washington would come to visit Raleigh, he would climb into the passenger seat of Lemuel's car" and she would act as his chauffer (Hearth 80). "Mr. Washington tried to help his people getting them educated," says Sadie sadly, mourning the fact he is often regarded by more black radicals in an unflattering way. Hearth's purpose in writing her book is twofold. On one hand, she wishes to celebrate the lives of these extraordinary women. She also wishes to show the multifaceted nature of the black experience in America. As professionals, these two women had access to advantages that other blacks did not, but they used these opportunities to excel far beyond any expectations the black or the white community had about the lives of women. Again and again, Bessie and Sadie find themselves in the middle of what will later become epoch-shattering history -- although the sisters are careful to add that when they moved to Harlem said they did not "venture too far into the jazz scene" because "after all, we were Bishop Delany's daughters"...
The paths of these sister's was extraordinary -- Bessie graduated with a dentistry degree in 1919, when women had not long had the vote and Jim Crow was still in force in the South. "As a woman dentist, I faced sexual harassment -- that's what they call it today -- but to me, racism was always a bigger problem" (Hearth 10). Sadie was afraid to go to her first job interview, even in New York City, because she would be denied because of her race. Yet the sisters were still full participants in history, supporting their brother Hubert's run for Congress in 1929, seeing Paul Robeson portray Othello on stage, and meeting Cab Calloway (Hearth 213; 188; 216).
American History? The technique of oral history, sampling the life of one person or several people to gain a portrait of the era is deployed in a uniquely effective fashion in Having Our Say. Simply by virtue of their longevity, the Delaney sisters had lives that intersected with the most seismic national and international events that shook the 20th century, including the American civil rights movement, the Great Depression, as
Delany Sisters' First 100 Years" by Sarah and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth. Specifically, it will contain a report on the book. The Delany sisters had remarkable lives and lived through some of the most volatile and yet progressive times in America. They saw the remnants of slavery, the Jim Crow laws, and the realization of Civil Rights during their lifetimes, and much more. Their book is
(55) This instilled in the Delany sisters a strong sense of family resulting in their lifelong bond as sisters, who lived together and supported one another through their entire lives. As a family the Delany's formed a band, all ten children playing an instrument led by their father who was an accomplished organ player. All of these factors, in addition to the wise and simple pronouncements from their parents
Feminism 19th and Early 20th Century America Writing and woman suffrage were inextricably intertwined in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Suffrage gave them a voice, and they used that voice to challenge the early American patriarchal status quo. By examining those works, new light can be brought to bear on suffrage activists, who at the time were thought to be an unimportant fringe group. Through a study of their
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