Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years

Reading the biography of the two centenarian aunts of Samuel R. Delany was a completely charming experience. Told in their voice to Amy Hill Hearth, their wisdom, experience and life stories across over a century of life in the US was simultaneously uplifting, challenging, heart-warming, and amusing. Born the children of a former slave and a free black woman of mixed-race origins, the Delany sisters lived through everything from Jim Crow to WWII, from the Civil Rights Movement to the AIDS crisis. Their experience as pioneers in the history of New York City, and the prominent place their respected family held in Harlem during the 1920s and 1930s exemplified the ways in which class and status among African Americans operated. But the "lift as we climb" ethos of their family and the fiery attitudes they display on the condition of African Americans past, present, and future manage to convey something of the great dignity of an oppressed people. Even when recounting humiliating or dangerous encounters with "rebby" white racists, the Klan, or bigoted neighbors, Bessie and Sadie come out of it as confident, assured, and proud. 

Moreover, despite their famous science fiction writer nephew never appearing by name in the text, one cannot help but feel that Delany the writer and the person is a bit more understandable. The family history of the Delanys, the very recent past of slavery, and their struggles to gain an education and enter the professions must have inspired Samuel R. Delany. While I know nothing about his mother's family, there is something quite inspirational and uplifting about the family narrative of his Delany forebears. Moreover, it helps explain why he was attracted to literature, writing and intellectual pursuits, as his grandfather was not only a bishop but a teacher. One of his aunts was a teacher, and his other was one of the early black woman dentists in New York City. His uncles included lawyers, dentists, doctors, and other educated people with connections to the NAACP and well-known black historical figures. Clearly, Delany only had to look to his own family past to see the themes of slavery, segregation and uplift whilst struggling in a racist, unequal society. It's somehow mind-boggling to think that he only had to look to his grandfather to see the history of slavery in America. One of these days, I'll have to read Delany's nonfiction to see what he has to say about his past in light of the biography of Bessie and Sadie.