A Good Read: Having Our Say
December 30th, 2008 | 
Author: 
I just finished the very interesting book Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years. It is about Sadie and Bessie Delany, two Negro women who came from a prominent Negro family in North Carolina. They became career women and racial pioneers: Sadie, the first African American woman to teach domestic science (home economics) in the State of New York; Bessie the second African American woman dentist licensed in the State of New York.
The chapters alternate between Sadie’s and Bessie’s point of view. It’s fun to see the different versions of the same incidents. You get a good perspective of their lives, their family, and what life was like for them doing things that women didn’t normally do in the 1900s let alone African American women!
Imagine:
- having a family creed that centered on self-improvement through education, civic-mindedness, faith in God, and ethical living.
- telling a drunk white man to leave you alone even though you knew you could be lynched for doing so.
- doing the dental work on prominent Black civil rights leaders.
- taking speaking lessons to get rid of your Southern accent so it wouldn’t keep you from getting a teaching position.
- being Black and moving into an all white suburb.
- doing yoga even though you are one hundred years old!
- living to be 104 years old (Bessie) and 110 years old (Sadie).
Imagine that!
I highly recommend this book. It’s an enjoyable and an easy read.
Posted in Books