Sadie and Bessie Delany
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Sarah Louise "Sadie" Delany (September 19, 1889 - January 25, 1999) and Annie Elizabeth "Bessie" Delany (September 3, 1891- September 25, 1995) were authors and civil rights pioneers. Sadie, the older of the two, was the first African American woman ever to be allowed to teach home economics in the state of New York.
Her sister Bessie was the second black woman to be granted a dentistry license in New York state. While these two positions awarded the sisters freedom from persecution in the workplace, it wasn't until the early 1990s, when both were over 100 years old, that they gained fame.
In 1992, the two sisters published a book called Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years, which dealt with the trials and tribulations the sisters had faced during their century of life. The book was highly successful on the best seller charts, and even spawned a Broadway play. They followed this up in 1994 with The Delany Sisters' Book of Everyday Wisdom.
After Bessie's death in 1995 at age 104, Sadie wrote another book called On My Own At 107: Reflections on Life Without Bessie, dealing with the loss of her sister. Sadie lived on until her death at the age of 109 in 1999.
The sisters were included in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1993 as the world's oldest authors.
The sisters were the aunts of science fiction author Samuel R. Delany, the son of their youngest brother Sam (1906-63). Their father Henry Beard Delany (1856-1928) was, in the full description they liked to use, "the first elected Negro bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church."