Sadie and Bessie Delany

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Sarah Louise "Sadie" Delany (born September 19, 1889 in Lynch Station , Virginia ; † January 25, 1999 in Mount Vernon , New York ) and Annie Elizabeth "Bessie" Delany (born September 3, 1891 in Raleigh , North Carolina ; † September 25, 1995 in Mount Vernon ) were African-American sisters, civil rights activists and authors.

Life

Sadie Delany was born the second of ten children to Reverend Henry Beard Delany (1856–1928), the first black bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America . She attended St. Augustine's College in Raleigh . In 1916 she moved to New York . She studied at the Pratt Institute and after graduating from Columbia University's Teachers College . In 1925 she obtained her master's degree . She was the first black woman to teach home economics in public schools in New York State .

Her sister Bessie, who was two years younger than her, followed her to New York in 1918. She was the only black woman in her class to study dentistry at Columbia University . After graduating in 1923, she became the second black woman to be licensed to practice as a dentist in New York State. In 1994 she received the Distinguished Alumna Award from Columbia's School of Dental and Oral Surgery for her services.

Together with journalist Amy Hill Hearth they wrote in 1992 the book Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years (German: Our first century ), where they reminisce the last century from the perspective of two African-American women. The book became a bestseller, and it was based on a Broadway play that was nominated for a Tony Award . The director Lynne Littman adapted the piece for a television film in 1999 with Diahann Carroll in the role of Sadie and Ruby Dee as Bessie.

The sisters, both over a hundred years old when the book was published, received an entry in the Guinness Book of Records in 1993 as the world's oldest female authors. The following year they published a second book, Delany Sisters' Book of Everyday Wisdom .

After Bessie died in 1995 at the age of 104, Sadie came to terms with her life alone in another book, On My Own at 107: Reflections on Life Without Bessie . Sadie Delany died in 1999 at the age of 109. They were the aunts of science fiction writer Samuel R. Delany .

Works

  • Sarah Louise Delany, A. Elizabeth Delany: Our First Hundred Years. The Delany Sisters tell ("Having Our Say. The Delany Sisters First 100 Years"). Droemer Knaur, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-426-60442-6 .
  • Sarah Louise Delany, A. Elizabeth Delany: Wisdom from a Hundred Years of Life ("Delany Sisters' Book of Everyday Wisdom"). Droemer Knaur, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-426-60506-6 .
  • Sarah Louise Delany: On My Own at 107. Reflections on Life Without Bessie . Harper Books, New York 1997, ISBN 0-06-251485-7 .

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