Having Our Say by Sadie and Bessie Delany Essay -- Having Our Say Lite

Having Our Say by Sadie and Bessie Delany The social, cultural and political history of America as it affects the heart course of American citizens became very real to us as the Delany sisters, Sadie and Bessie, recounted their life course spanning a century of living in their book Having Our Say. The Delany sisters lives cover the period of their childhood in Raleigh, North Carolina, after the Surrender to their adult lives in Harlem, New York City during the roaring twenties, to a quiet retirement in suburban, New York City, as self-styled maiden ladies. At the ages of 102 and 104, these ladies have lived long enough to look back over a century of their exisdecadece and hold dear the value of a good family life and companionship, also to have the last laugh that in spite of all their struggles with racism, sexism, political and economic changes they triumphed (Having Our Say). Of all the ten children of Henry and Nanny Delany, Sadie and Bessie developed a bond of companionship fr om childhood to the end of their lives. They were even able to complete each others thoughts, because they shared what Karl Mannheim described as a common location in the social and historical process that predisposes them for a certain characteristic mode of thought and experience. They therefore, corroborated about of Mannheims discussions on location and its effect on a generation (Karl Mannheim, The Sociological Problem of Generations, pp. 290-91). Further, throughout the book, Sadie and Bessie continuously reminds the reader of the strong influence family life had on their entire lives. Their father and mother were college educated and their father was the first black Episcopal priest and vice principal at St. Augustine Co... ...ieth century America. The majority of blacks during that era, did not possess the family status and class structure that surrounds the Delany sisters and, therefore, it would virtually be impossible for them to succeed at the level the Delanys did. But the Delanys still had their share of individualized troubles which was influenced by public issues but they survived and in their own unique, humorous way lived to say Weve outlived those old rebby boys Thats one way to beat them Thats umpire Works CitedDelany, S., Delany, A., and Hearth, A. Having Our Say. New York 1967. Mannheim, K., Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge. Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. 1952. Bennett, L. Jr. A History of Black America. Sixth edition, Penguin Books 1993. Franklin, J., Moss, A. Jr. From Slavery to Freedom. Seventh edition, McGraw Hill, Inc. 1994.