Having Our Say

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In their 200-plus combined years of living, centenarians Sadie and Bessie Delany have seen it all. They saw their extraordinary father, who was born into slavery, become America's first elected black Episcopal bishop. They saw their dedicated mother—a woman of mixed racial heritage who was born free—work fulltime as a teacher and school administrator while bringing ten children into the world, all of whom would become college-educated, successful professionals. They saw the post-Reconstruction South, the beginning of Jim Crow laws, Harlem's Golden Age, and the mid-twentieth century Civil Rights movement—and, in their own feisty, wise, inimitable way, they've got a lot to say about it. A firsthand account of American history from a rarely-heard perspective, Having Our Say teaches us about surviving, thriving, and embracing life, no matter what obstacles are in our way. Having Our Say, first published in 1993, is considered a classic of the oral