Key Facts
full title · Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years
authors · Sarah Louise Delany and Annie Elizabeth Delany, with
Amy Hill Hearth
type of work · Oral history
genre · Nonfiction; dual memoir; American history
language · English
time and place written · White Plains, New York; 1991–1993
date of first publication · 1993
publisher · Kodansha America
narrator · Amy Hill Hearth offers a preface and provides contextual information
at the opening of each of the book's seven parts. Sadie and Bessie
Delany are sometimes the sole narrators and sometimes the combined
narrators of chapters.
point of view · In her preface, Amy Hill Hearth speaks in the first
person, establishing her relationship with the Delany sisters and
her role in the book. In her informational section introductions,
she uses the third person.
· The Delany sisters use the first person singular when
they narrate their own chapters. When they are co-narrators of a
chapter, they use the first person plural. The sisters' narratives
are valuable for their subjectivity. Sometimes Sadie and Bessie
see matters of history in the same light, and at other times they
see things quite differently. Hearth's historical footnotes and
section introductions allow readers to read objectively and to appreciate the
power of the Delany sisters' points of view.
tone · Amy Hill Hearth is sympathetic to the points of view
of the Delany sisters. This is evident in her preface, though not
in the strictly objective and journalistic information that she
subtly inserts into the sisters' narratives.
· The tone of both Sadie and Bessie Delany is conversational
and accessible. They both speak with pride about their history,
and both have lively senses of humor. Whereas Sadie's tone is calm and
even, Bessie can become angry when discussing past and present injustice.
tense · Primarily the past tense. When the sisters discuss
current events or their daily routine, they use the present tense.
setting (time) · 1889–1991
setting (place) · Hearth conducted the interviews with the Delany sisters
at their home in Mount Vernon, New York. Their story takes them
from Raleigh, North Carolina, to Harlem in New York City, to Mount Vernon.
protagonist · Sarah (Sadie) L. Delany and A. Elizabeth (Bessie) Delany
major conflict · The Delany sisters are born into a southern black family
at the end of the nineteenth century, a time when racist views are
deeply entrenched and dangerous. They must come of age and fulfill their
dreams while fighting the mindset and institutions that would deter
them.
rising action · The Delany parents try to shield their children from
racist views, but Sadie and Bessie meet racist whites, whom they
call the “rebby boys,” and are aware that their maternal grandparents,
a white man and a black woman, cannot marry.
climax · Sadie and Bessie encounter the Jim Crow laws on a family
picnic to Pullen Park in Raleigh. When the trolley driver tells
them to move to the back of the car, the young girls experience institutionalized
racism for the first time. This is a climax sustained throughout
the narrative, as the women continue to face discrimination in different
ways. Their treatment only strengthens their resolve to be successful
in their careers.
falling action · Sadie and Bessie combat racism in different ways, though
both do so persistently and with great determination. Sadie goes quietly
and deftly about attaining whatever goal she sets herself, while
Bessie speaks up loudly on behalf of herself and others whenever
she observes any injustice. By sheer force of will, it seems, the
Delany sisters have outlived the rebby boys.
themes · The power of naming and name-calling; the pursuit of
education; the prevalence of racism and sexism
motifs · Shades of black and white; rebby boys; seating arrangements
symbols · Home; the painted china doll; Halley's Comet
foreshadowing · Bessie encounters the discriminatory Jim Crow laws
for the first time at Pullen Park when she is five years old. The
spring where she always went for a drink is now divided into a black
side and a white side. Bessie dips her cup into the white side,
foreshadowing her later reactions to racism. Though Sadie finds
Bessie's overt defiance dangerous, Bessie stands up to racist behavior
many times. As an adult, she confronts a drunken white man in a Georgia
railway station and is nearly lynched, recalling the incident at
the spring in Pullen Park.
· In Raleigh, Sadie deals with racist law in more subtle
ways than Bessie. At a shoe store, she “plays dumb” when the owner
tries to direct her to the back of the store. Eventually he lets
her sit where she likes. This incident foreshadows how she will
attain her position as a high school teacher at a New York City
high school. She is an expert at working around the system without
causing a stir.
