Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years by Sarah and Al Elizabeth Delany and Amy Hill Hearth

 Bessie, age 101, and Sadie, aged 103 are doing a lot more than just having their say.  They are witnesses to the history of blacks in America in the 20th century.  Their father was born into slavery and grew up to become a minister in the Episcopalian church.  He believed in education for both the boys and the girls of his large family.  He settled in Raleigh, North Carolina with his wife and raised a family.  

Bessie, or "Queen Bess", who was the feisty one and "Sweet Sadie", who was the quiet, yet determined one lived together their whole lives.  They talk about growing up in the South and about getting their education.  Bessie in dentistry and Sadie in education.  Bessie became the second black woman to get a license in both New York and North Carolina.  Sadie became a superintendent of schools for New York City.  For Bessie being a woman and black meant that people would steal the dental tools that she had borrowed from her brother and no one did anything about it.  She had a rough time of it.  Sadie started out teaching Home Economics and therefore had a slightly easier time as a woman but not a black woman.

They moved from Raleigh to New York City to go to Columbia University.  They lived in Harlem and saw the Harlem Renaissance unfold before their eyes.  They met people like Book T. Washington, W.E.B Du Bois, Cab Calloway, and Lena Horne.  They also lived through two World Wars and the Civil Rights Movement.  It is also about the rise of the black middle class. This is a fascinating book that takes you through the pages of history by people who lived it.  

Quotes

Sister Sadie, we bought a house with windows, those windows are here for a reason and I'm going to use them! (Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters First 100 Years by Sadie and A Elizabeth Delancy and Amy Hill Hearth p 14)

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, and brilliant.  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 Quale.  If that boy was colored he'd be washing dishes somewhere. (Having Our Say by Sadie and A. Elizabeth Delancy and Amy Hill Hearth p 114)

When you're in a train and it breaks down there you is.  But when you're in a plane and it breaks down  there you ain't.  (Having Our Say by Sadie and A. Elizabeth Delancy and Amy Hill Hearth p 154)