Having Our Say by Sarah L. Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth

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Let's Talk About It!Bessie and Sadie Delany were both over 100 years old in 1993 when Amy Hill Hearth interviewed them (Bessie died in 1995 at 104, and Sadie died in 1999 at the age of 109). So intriguing were the sisters' stories that this book became a New York Times best seller, and another book, The Delany Sisters' Book of Everyday Wisdom, followed in 1994. Having Our Say was made into a successful Broadway play in 1995 (nominated for three Tony awards) and recently presented on television, and this production received the Peabody Award. After Bessie passed away, Sadie wrote On My Own at 107: Reflections on a Life without Bessie in 1997.

The book is the sisters' oral history, culled from a series of interviews, and it is organized in rough chronology, beginning with the sisters' earliest memories of growing up in Raleigh, North Carolina and ending with their contemporary lives in their home in Mount Vernon, New York. Growing up in Raleigh, the sisters attended St. Augustine's School where their father (later to become the first black Episcopal bishop in the United States) was an administrator and their mother taught. The two sisters moved to New York City in 1917 to further their education. After graduating from Columbia University, Bessie became the second black woman licensed to practice dentistry in New York state in 1923; Sadie graduated in 1925 and became the first black home economics teacher in the New York City Public School system. Each sister freely acknowledges that her success was a result of the lessons and guidance of their parents and the closeness of family.

Not only is this a book about growing older and wiser, but it is also a fascinating account of family life and pride, race relations, civil rights issues, and American rural and urban life through the last century. The sisters lived through the era of Jim Crow, the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Depression, two World Wars, the Korean War and Vietnam. They were alive when women gained the right to vote, and when civil rights laws were passed and enacted. They lived through the terrors of the KKK and the assassinations of John Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. Over the years, the Delany sisters knew some of the most influential people of the day, including Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Paul Robeson.

Though over one hundred years old, Sadie speaks for both of them when she says, "in our dreams, we are always young… Truth is, we both forget we're old" (229).

Amy Hill Hearth is a journalist who contributes to The New York Times. In addition to working on this book, she also worked with Sadie to produce On My Own at 107: Reflections on Life without Bessie in 1998.

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Discussion questions for Having Our Say:

  1. Bessie, somewhat outspoken, and Sadie, persistent yet soft-spoken, represent two approaches to life in general and civil rights in particular. Discuss their views.
  2. Bessie says, "when you get real old, honey, you realize there are certain things that just don't matter anymore. You lay it all on the table. There's a saying: Only little children and old folks tell the truth" (203-204). Discuss these ideas.
  3. Sadie reflects on her life, saying,
    We buried so many people we've loved [They outlived all the members of their immediate family]. Most everyone we know has turned to dust. Well, there must be some reason we're still here. That's why we agreed to do this book; it gives us a sense of purpose. If it helps just one person, then it's worth doing. That's what Mama used to say. (8)

    In what ways might this book have helped you?

  4. Both sisters follow a daily routine of exercise (yoga), a proper diet, and prayer (230-231). Bessie says, "If you asked me the secret of longevity, I would tell you that you have to work at taking care of your health. But a lot of it's attitude. I'm alive out of sheer determination, honey! Sometimes I think it's my meanness that keeps me going" (15). Discuss.
  5. We all have access to detailed information about events in our world, and we can learn about virtually any subject through study of widely available resources. Is there a difference between this sort of knowledge acquisition and actually living it, as the Delany sisters had? Discuss.

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Last updated: October 19, 2006 - 2:29pm by eric.hildreth