Sarah L. Delany (1889–1999)
Author of Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years
About the Author
Sarah Louise (Sadie) Delany was born in 1889. Her father was a former slave and her mother's parents were a free African American woman and a white Virginia farmer. Sarah Delany had nine siblings, including her sister, Elizabeth, born in 1891, with whom she co-authored Having Our Say: The Delany show more Sisters' First 100 Years. The book chronicles the story of their well-lived lives with wit and wisdom. It begins with an idyllic childhood in North Carolina where their father was the principal of St. Augustine's School. The legislation of Jim Crow laws prompted their move to Harlem. Sarah Delany attended Pratt College, becoming a high school teacher, and Elizabeth Delany attended Columbia University, becoming a dentist. The sisters experienced most of the 20th century and describe major events such as the struggle for Civil Rights and their feelings about it. Delany has also coauthored The Delany Sisters' Book of Everyday Wisdom and On My Own at 107: Reflections on Life Without Bessie, written following the death of her sister. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Disambiguation Notice:
Do NOT combine Sarah Delany with Elizabeth Delany, or any of the variants that include both their names. Thank you.
Works by Sarah L. Delany
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Delany, Sarah L.
- Legal name
- Delany, Sarah Louise
- Other names
- Delany, Sadie
- Birthdate
- 1889-09-19
- Date of death
- 1999-01-25
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Pratt Institute (AA|1918)
Columbia University (BA|1920|MA|1925) - Occupations
- teacher
- Relationships
- Delaney, Samuel R. (nephew)
Delany, A. Elizabeth (sister) - Short biography
- Sadie Delany was a nonagenarian when she found fame in 1993, after a joint oral history of her life and that of her sister Bessie became the best-selling book Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years. One of ten children born to a former slave who became the first African-American Episcopal bishop, Delany was educated at St. Augustine's College in Raleigh, N.C. She left the Jim Crow-era South in 1916 to move to New York, where Bessie joined her less than two years later. In 1923 Delany became the first black woman to teach home economics (then called domestic science) in New York City public schools, at Theodore Roosevelt High School in the Bronx. Over the years she also taught at P.S. 119 and both Girls' and Evander Childs High Schools before retiring in 1960. The sisters' book was adapted for the Broadway stage in 1995, the year in which Bessie Delany died at the age of 104. As a tribute to the younger sister to whom she was so close, Sadie published a second book, On My Own at 107: Reflections on a Life Without Bessie.
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Lynch's Station, Virginia, USA
- Places of residence
- Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
New York, New York, USA - Place of death
- Mount Vernon, Virginia, USA
- Burial location
- Mount Hope Cemetery, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
- Disambiguation notice
- Do NOT combine Sarah Delany with Elizabeth Delany, or any of the variants that include both their names. Thank you.
- Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
I never thought I'd see the day that the world would want to hear what two old Negro women have to say," says Bessie Delany. But Bessie and her sister, Sadie, born in 1893 and 1891, saw plenty, by eating a low-fat, high-vegetable diet and outliving the "old Rebby [rebel] boys" who once almost lynched Sadie. This remarkable memoir was a long-running bestseller, spawning a Broadway play and adding to their list of seasoned acquaintances (Marian Anderson, Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, Cab show more Calloway) such spring chickens as Hillary Clinton. Born to a former slave whose owners broke the law by teaching him to read, the sisters got a solid education. North Carolina was paradise--despite the Rebbies--until Jim Crow reared its hideous head. The girls had loved to ride in the front of the trolley because the wind in their hair made them feel free, but one day the conductor sadly ordered them to the back. The family moved to New York, where Bessie became the town's second black woman dentist and Sadie the first black woman home-ec teacher. They befriended everyone who was anyone in the Harlem Renaissance (their brother won the 1925 Congressional primary there), pursued careers instead of husbands, and lived peacefully together, despite their differences. Sadie was more peaceable, like Booker T. Washington, while Bessie was a W.E.B. Du Bois-style militant.
They're funny: Bessie notes that blacks must be sharp to get ahead, "But if you're average and white, honey, you can go far. Just look at Dan Quayle. If that boy was colored he'd be washing dishes somewhere." And they are wise: Sadie says, "Life is short, and it's up to you to make it sweet."
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They're funny: Bessie notes that blacks must be sharp to get ahead, "But if you're average and white, honey, you can go far. Just look at Dan Quayle. If that boy was colored he'd be washing dishes somewhere." And they are wise: Sadie says, "Life is short, and it's up to you to make it sweet."
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This is a delightful small memoir of the lives of two 100-year-old African-American sisters who suffered under Jim Crow and other repressive situations, yet managed to be college educated (one a dentist, the other a teacher) and homeowners.
These ladies are absolutely irrepressible! They say whatever they think. Such as: “You see, when you are colored, everyone is always looking for your faults. If you are going to make it, you have to be entirely honest, clean, brilliant, and so on. show more Because if you slip up once, the white folks say to each other ‘See, what’d I tell you,’ So you don’t have to be as good as white people, you have to be better or the best. When Negroes are average, they fail, unless they are very, very lucky. Now if you‘re average and white, honey, you can go far. Just look at Dan Quayle. If that boy was colored he’d be washing dishes somewhere.” and “It’s interesting the way folks have become interested in Malcolm X again. A lot of the things he said were true, but he said them so bluntly that white folks were scared to death of him. It was easier for white folks to admire Martin Luther King, because he was less threatening to them.” and “For instance, everybody knew that Nestle’s would hire Negroes, but Hershey’s wouldn’t once I had encountered that, I used to walk through Harlem and scold any Negro eating a Hershey bar. Usually, they would stop eating it, but sometimes they thought I was crazy. Well honey, I do not allow Hershey candy in my home to this day.”
A quick read, and highly recommended. show less
These ladies are absolutely irrepressible! They say whatever they think. Such as: “You see, when you are colored, everyone is always looking for your faults. If you are going to make it, you have to be entirely honest, clean, brilliant, and so on. show more Because if you slip up once, the white folks say to each other ‘See, what’d I tell you,’ So you don’t have to be as good as white people, you have to be better or the best. When Negroes are average, they fail, unless they are very, very lucky. Now if you‘re average and white, honey, you can go far. Just look at Dan Quayle. If that boy was colored he’d be washing dishes somewhere.” and “It’s interesting the way folks have become interested in Malcolm X again. A lot of the things he said were true, but he said them so bluntly that white folks were scared to death of him. It was easier for white folks to admire Martin Luther King, because he was less threatening to them.” and “For instance, everybody knew that Nestle’s would hire Negroes, but Hershey’s wouldn’t once I had encountered that, I used to walk through Harlem and scold any Negro eating a Hershey bar. Usually, they would stop eating it, but sometimes they thought I was crazy. Well honey, I do not allow Hershey candy in my home to this day.”
A quick read, and highly recommended. show less
It seems odd to say that this book is delightful, since it is the story of Sadie dealing with Bessie's death, but I found it uplifting, heartwarming, encouraging and inspiring. I loved the paintings of flowers between chapters and the blend of Amy Hill Hearth's viewpoint with Sarah L. Delany's thoughts. A wonderful little book on dealing with grief.
I don't know if this really a five star book, but I read it when it first came out, when I was in my early 30s, and I have often thought of it in the years since. I wanted to read it again, so about a decade ago I picked up a copy and saved it for a rainy-day comfort/ inspiration read. Well, now I'm using for a 'read a bestseller challenge' *and* for personal inspiration, and it's just as wonderful as I remember. I love these women's voices, and love learning about history from their show more experiences.
"Life is short and it's up to you to make it sweet." (Well, if Sadie says 103 is 'short' I better get going on making the most of my next 5 decades!)
The journalist who edited their stories deserves credit, too. And the pictures are interesting, in that they're family photos that also reveal history. show less
"Life is short and it's up to you to make it sweet." (Well, if Sadie says 103 is 'short' I better get going on making the most of my next 5 decades!)
The journalist who edited their stories deserves credit, too. And the pictures are interesting, in that they're family photos that also reveal history. show less
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