Having Our Say (Delany)

Author Bio
• Dates —Sarah 1889-1999; Elizabeth, 1891-1995
• Born—Both in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
• Died —Both in Mt. Vernon, New York,
• Education—Sarah, B.A., M.A., Columbia University
   Elizabeth, D.D.S., Columbia University (dentistry)

Dr. Elizabeth Delany and Sarah Delany were born in Raleigh, North Carolina, on the campus of St. Augustine's College. Their father, born into slavery and freed by the Emancipation, was an administrator at the college and America's first elected black Episcopal bishop. Sarah received her bachelor's and master's degrees from Teachers College at Columbia University and was New York City's first appointed black home economics teacher on the high school level. Elizabeth received her degree in dentistry from Columbia University and was the second black woman licensed to practice dentistry in New York City. The sisters retired to Mt. Vernon, New York. Dr. Elizabeth Delany died in September 1995, at the age of 104. Sarah died in 1999 at the age of 109. (From the publisher.)

More
Sarah Louise "Sadie" Delany (September 19, 1889 - January 25, 1999) and Annie Elizabeth "Bessie" Delany (September 3, 1891- September 25, 1995) were American authors and civil rights pioneers.

Sadie, the older of the two, was the first African American woman ever to be allowed to teach Domestic Science in the state of New York. Her sister Bessie was the second black woman to be granted a dentistry license in New York state. While these two positions awarded the sisters freedom from persecution in the workplace, it wasn't until the early 1990s, when both were over 100 years old, that they gained fame.

In 1992, the two sisters published Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years, (with Amy Hill Hearth), which dealt with the trials and tribulations the sisters had faced during their century of life. The book was highly successful on the best seller charts, and even spawned a Broadway play. In 1999 the movie Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years was released on television. It was directed by Lynne Littman with Diahann Carroll as Sadie and Ruby Dee as Bessie.

In 1994 with The Delany Sisters' Book of Everyday Wisdom was published as a follow up to Having Our Say. After Bessie's death in 1995 at age 104, Sadie wrote another book called On My Own At 107: Reflections on Life Without Bessie, dealing with the loss of her sister. Sadie died at the age of 109 in 1999.

The sisters were included in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1993 as the world's oldest authors.

The sisters were the aunts of science fiction author Samuel R. Delany, the son of their youngest brother Sam (1906-63). Their father Henry Beard Delany (1856-1928) was, in the full description they liked to use, "the first elected Negro bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church. (From Wikipedia.)