Cause-Effect the Work, Having Our

¶ … Cause-Effect

The work, Having Our Say by Sarah and Elizabeth Delany is one of the most foundational works expressing Black American Values through modern oral history techniques. Many of those who have said and done extraordinary things in extraordinary times are not artists and writers but everyday people with a simple set of values passed down to them by their times and the most influential people in their lives, their parents. The Delany sisters and their thoughts and expressions of value and quiet perseverance are a direct reflection of the words, actions and thoughts of their loving and wise parents, Nanny James Logan Delany and Henry Beard Delany.

Papa and Mama as the sisters lovingly refer to their parents, Nanny and Henry were foundational to the development of their family and their community, and the wisdom and values they imparted on Sarah (Sadie) and Elizabeth (Bessie) can be seen in almost every word and deed of their lives..

In 1918 Papa became the first elected Negro bishop of the Episcopal Church U.S.A. That's a long way for a man who was born a slave on a Georgia plantation. But if you had known Papa, you wouldn't have been surprised. He was always improving himself, and he and Mama brought us up to reach high. (9)

Sadie and Bessie's father, among other things, taught them values and standards for achievement that never flagged as they became more and more successful in their own rights. Their mother also helped in this cause teaching them self-value and racial pride.

Mama who was from Virginia, was an issue-free Negro [a person who had black ancestry but whose mother was a free person, not a slave]. Mama looked white but she never did try to "pass." She was proud to be a colored woman! (9)

Mr. And Mrs. Delany challenged their circumstances daily while still making sure they protected themselves and their children. In one memorable passage in the work the Delany sisters comment of the way in which their parents referred to one another.

The called each other Mr. And Mrs. Delany, not because they felt the need to be overly formal or pretentious but because as the sisters put it people of color were referred to by their first names in public almost exclusively in public because, "It was a way of treating them with less dignity." (9)

The Delany parents were well educated and valued that education, instilling the power of knowledge in their ten children, as Mr. Delany was the Vice-principle of the Saint Augustine School in Raleigh North Carolina and Mrs. Delany was the Matron.

In fact Mrs. Delany had been the valedictorian of her class at St. Augustine's before she was married (32), a fact that was not lost on her girls as they both became educated one becoming a dentist (Bessie) and the other a high school teacher (Sadie).

The Delany parents, even though the girls viewed them as being the busiest people in the world where always known by their children and others as always having time for them. (55) This instilled in the Delany sisters a strong sense of family resulting in their lifelong bond as sisters, who lived together and supported one another through their entire lives. As a family the Delany's formed a band, all ten children playing an instrument led by their father who was an accomplished organ player. All of these factors, in addition to the wise and simple pronouncements from their parents on everything from money to faith combined to create two fantastic and wise women, who never fail to share their wisdom.

The passages in the work that most express the challenges that the Delany's faced together with pride have to do with the social changes that occurred post-reformation at the beginning of the Jim Crow Era. The Delany sisters refer to the beginning of Jim Crow in North Carolina as "the day that everything changed." (73) Though segregation had long been a part of most America societies, by custom the laws that came about during the Jim Crow era gave law to the already challenged lives of American blacks, and already strained race relations.

The laws changed the way people lived, and even those white people who had once been open and at least limitedly accepting of blacks, say in their stores, where now legally bound by state, local and regional laws to exclude people whom they had always served. (77-78) for, Sadie and Bessie this marked a point where their parent's protection was sorely needed and their children duly noted their wisdom and endurance. A dark period in the lives of many people black and white the Jim Crow era left many socially prominent blacks wondering why they had worked so hard to get where they were when in the end they couldn't even drink from the same fountain as their white, sometimes less successful neighbors.