I often like to revisit books I read in school growing up, and one that always stuck with me was a memoir I read in my 6th grade reading class – Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years. In this historically important account, Amy Hill Hearth helps centenarian sisters Annie Elizabeth Delany (Bessie) and Sarah Louise Delany (Sadie) tell the story of their lives growing up as mixed-race children in the South and eventually becoming groundbreaking Black professionals in Harlem in the early 20th century.

I remember reading this as a kid and loving Bessie’s attitude. She was fiery, and nothing could keep her down – not her race, nor her gender. As one of the first Black female dentists in New York, she paved the way for generations of medical professionals by overcoming the adversity she faced.

What resonated with me most was her genuine care for her patients. If one needed food, she would give up her own lunch. If one was marching in a protest, she marched beside them. Most beautifully, when she learned that one of her patients had become pregnant while living in poverty and was considering abortion, Bessie offered to raise the baby herself if that was what it took. After the child was born, the mother realized she could not bear to give her up and instead named the baby Bessie after the woman who had advocated for her life. The little girl grew up knowing Bessie as a second mother figure and spent much of her childhood with her. To me, Bessie represents the truest definition of feminism.

Reading this book again as an adult, Sadie’s career as a teacher also stood out to me. Having been a teacher myself, I was deeply moved by the care she showed the children who crossed her path. She often took it upon herself to teach students basic life skills their parents could not provide for them, from hygiene to cooking. Later, when housing projects were built in her neighborhood, children frequently knocked on the sisters’ door needing help with everything from food to caring for pets, and the sisters never turned them away.

The book was published in 1993, so both sisters and their many siblings have since passed away, but this is such an important family in American history that deserves to be celebrated for their legacy of love and justice. It is a fairly short yet deeply impactful read that many people would enjoy. These women deserve to have their voices remembered, because they embodied some of the very best qualities of the culture that raised them and devoted their lives to making the world better for others by constantly bettering themselves.