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The Delany Sisters: Who They Were

Dr. A. Elizabeth (Bessie) Delany, left, and her older sister, Sarah L. (Sadie) Delany, right. Photo by Brian Douglas; photo copyright Amy Hill Hearth.

 

 

The Delany Sisters were a pair of centenarian sisters who made a lasting and unique contribution to the story of race in America by sharing their wit, wisdom, and life stories in Having Our Say, their 1993 oral history book co-authored with Amy Hill Hearth, the journalist who introduced them to a national audience when she wrote a 1991 profile about them for The New York Times.  

  

A New York Times bestseller for 117 weeks and a classroom favorite, Having Our Say was one of the most widely-read and influential books of the 1990s. The book was later adapted to the Broadway stage and for film.

 

The Delany Sisters defied stereotypes of being Black, female, and aged in America. Their candid recollections provided insight into the prejudices with which Americans still struggle today. 

 

Born in the late 1800s in the South, the Delany Sisters - Sarah, known as Sadie, and her little sister Elizabeth, called Bessie - were the daughters of a man born into slavery. Their mother, a woman of mixed-race ancestry, could have passed for white but chose not to. The sisters and their eight brothers and sisters were raised on the campus of Saint Augustine's School in Raleigh, NC, where their father was an Episcopal minister and vice-principal, and their mother, a teacher and administrator. In late life, their father was the first Black person elected Bishop in the Episcopal Church USA.

 

As young women during the WW I era, the sisters moved to New York City, joining the great migration of Black Americans in search of opportunity in the North. 

 

The Delany Sisters' accomplishments were extraordinarily rare. At a time when few women - and even fewer Black women - received a college education, the Delany Sisters earned advanced degrees from Columbia University. Bessie Delany was awarded a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree in 1923, and Sadie Delany, a Master's in Education in 1925. Both embarked on ground-breaking careers. Bessie Delany became the second Black woman to practice dentistry in the State of New York, and Sadie, the first Black person to teach Domestic Science at the high school level in New York City public schools, a job previously reserved for whites.  

 

Living and working in Harlem, the Delany Sisters knew many luminaries including Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington, James Weldon Johnson, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Paul Robeson as well as entertainers such as Cab Calloway, Ethel Waters and Duke Ellington. The Delany Sisters' recollections in Having Our Say provide new insight into what was called the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 30s.

 

The sisters lived together all of their lives. Although each had opportunities to marry, they declined, knowing they would be expected to give up their careers which they were not willing to do. Being independent was more important to them.

 

Bessie Delany died at age 104 on September 25, 1995. Sadie died at age 109 on January 25, 1999. They are buried beside their parents in Raleigh, NC. 

 

Dr. A. Elizabeth ("Bessie") Delany, the "little sister" of the pair, as she appeared in her 1923 yearbook, Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery. She was the second Black woman licensed to practice dentistry in New York State, and practiced in Harlem for many years. (From the book Having Our Say. Copyright 1993 Amy Hill Hearth)

Sarah L. ("Sadie") Delany, shown in her college graduation photo, was the older of the pair of sisters. She earned a Bachelor's degree in Education from Columbia University in 1920. She later earned a Master's in Education, also from Columbia. She was the first Black person permitted to teach Domestic Science at the high school level in the New York City Public Schools. (From the book Having Our Say, copyright 1993 Amy Hill Hearth)