Having Our Say: the Delany Sisters' First 100 Years

by Sarah Louise (Sadie) Delaney, A. Elizabeth (Bessie) Delany, and Amy Hill Hearth
my personal copy & a Hennepin County Library copy
genre: memoir

I love this book! These women were amazing and I am so very glad that Amy Hill Hearth got their stories while they were still able to tell them. This book is a treasury of living history. It is powerful and moving. I always have to remind myself - Sadie was a teacher, older than Bessie, and considered very sweet. She looks a bit lighter and larger than Bessie. Bessie was a dentist, darker, and much feistier! These two women were among the ten children of Henry and Nanny Delany.

I read this before, but it was at least ten years ago, so it's not in my blog and it's not even in my old Excel reading record (which I keep meaning to put in this blog . . . ). So even though it's a re-read, here's what I tagged with post-its this time:

page 66 (in chapter 10) - they talk about the Jim Crow laws and their impact on daily life. They say, "So, this Jim Crow mess was started to keep the races apart, and keep the Negroes down. Now, Mama and Papa knew these laws were coming, of course, but they didn't prepare us. I guess our parents could not find the words to explain it.. They did not want to fill us with hatred." Wow. If only some of the people trying to enforce those laws could have done the same for their children - wanting them to not be filled with hatred.

page 129 (chapter 19) - talking about going to the opera and their father's concern with people's perceptions of him. "So we not only lived a clean life, we wanted to be sure people knew that we did. This is a burden that white people do not have, I think. It always seemed to me that white people were judged as individual. But if a Negro did something stupid or wrong, it was held against all of us. Negroes were always representing the whole race." The truth and the unfairness of this bother me. Why are we so willing to generalize someone else's behavior and so adamant about defending our own individualism and identity? I love Bessie's straightforward way of calling things out.

page 141 (chapter 21) - Bessie is referring to her struggle between fighting for women's rights and for equal rights ' "I was torn between two issues - colored, and Women's rights. But it seemed to me that no matter how much I had to put up with as a woman, the bigger problem was being colored. People looked at me and the first thing they saw was Negro, not woman. So racial equality, as a cause, won in my heart."

page 145 (chapter 22) - Sadie is talking about how she helped her cousin Daisy with vitamins and nutrition planning. "It's only now that I'm telling anyone about how I helped Cousin Daisy. I never told anyone at the time, except Bessie. The way we were brought up, it was only natural for Bessie and me to help other people. It wasn't something you did so that people thought well of you. No, you did it because that was what was expected of you. It was the example that was set by the Good Lord, Jesus. It was also the example set by Mama and Papa." I love this! I wish that I were more like this and that others in the world wanted to just help others because it is the right thing to do.

page 158 (chapter 25) - Bessie is talking about the stock market crash and "rich white men" committing suicide by jumping out of office buildings. "I can't imagine having so little faith in the Lord, and so much faith in money, that you would end your life over a little thing like losing your fortune. The Lord says money is Evil, and He is right! Money is the root of every mess you can think of, including slavery. Greed! Profiting off the backs of others!"

page 179 (chapter 28) - Bessie is talking about her mother at the end of her life, feeling bad about the fact that her own parents had never married (Martha Logan was mulatto and James Miliam was white; it wasn't legal for them to marry in Virginia until 1967 - long after their deaths!). "But I don't think Mama was so ashamed anymore, once she got very old. I understand this now. When you get real old, honey, you realize there are certain things that just don't matter anymore. You lay it all on the table. There's a saying: Only little children and old folks tell the truth."

page 199 (chapter 30) - Bessie (again) after telling about the civil rights movement and presidents she liked says three funny / interesting things.
"I'll tell you something, honey: I would have made a very good president. That's right! Me! I would have done well. I'm honest and I'm tough and I could get the job done, yes, sir! The first thing I would do if I was president would be to say that people over one hundred years of age no longer have to pay taxes! Ha ha! Lord knows I've paid my share."
"Seriously, the first thing I would do if I was president would be to get rid of this old deficit. That funny little white guy, Ross Perot, he is right about the deficit. We are a foolish, foolish people. That deficit is a disgrace. I heard on the radio that every two seconds, our debt increases a million dollars. When I heard that, it got me so upset I could not sleep that night. It just about worried me to death."
"I guess it will be a thousand years - probably never - before a colored person is elected president of the United States. Sadie disagrees with me. She says, 'There will be a Negro president someday.'"

Bessie Delany died in 1995 at age 104.
Sadie Delany died 1999, at age 109.
Barack Obama was elected president of the United States of America in January 2009.

There are so many incredible stories and so much vitality in these women's voices. They still lived together at their home (with no telephone) as centenarians! I am glad I own a copy of this book and can re-read it. What inspiration!

Half Broke Horses: a True-Life Novel

by Jeannette Walls
Hennepin County Library audioCDs 8 discs
genre: realistic fiction based on truth . . . family relationships

Walls, the author of Glass Castles, has chosen to tell her grandmother's story as though her grandmother is telling it herself. Interesting choices . . . it would be even more interesting to know how accurate her view is. Certainly, the details are believable and engaging. Lily's perspective on life and parenting (and education) are frank and a little abrasive. This is a well-written, engaging story. It almost makes me want to go back and re-read Glass Castles. I remember being horrified by her parents and their destructive choices. It's interesting to learn about Rosemary's childhood and where she came from as well as her courtship with Rex.

Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution

by Ji Li Jiang
PRMS hardcover 272 pages
genre: memoir, non-fiction

What a riveting, first-person account of China's drastic change during Chairman Mao's leadership. Her innocent, childlike trust in Mao and the changes for the good of everyone are downright chilling. This makes me curious to learn more about the era and the loss of "fourolds" art, furniture, literature, and other things that were done away with. This is well-written and very appropriate for middle school (it covers her life from ages 12-14). This is a great way to learn some history! I hope this author writes more books, whether autobiographical or fiction. She has a wonderful voice.