having our say study guide
Having Our Say
Study Guide
1. Where did Bessie and Sadie Delany grow up?
2. From which university did Bessie and Sadie Delany earn their degrees?
3. What professional achievement did each of the Delany sisters accomplish?
4. Did either Delany sister ever marry?
5. Where did their parents meet, marry, and rear them and their siblings? How many children did they have?
6. What was the original status of the Delany sisters’ parents?
7. What was their father’s occupation?
8. Define issue-free Negro.
9. According to Bessie, what is a Rebby?
10. What modern amenity did the Delany sisters not own?
11. To what religious denomination did the sisters belong?
12. Describe Bessie’s “full-time job”?
13. What did Bessie believe that oppressed people like colored folks and Jews have?
14. What unique celebration did the sisters enjoy every year? How did they celebrate this event?
15. What distinguished the Delanys from other blacks during the transitional period from the Civil War through Reconstruction? Why were they able to “make a niche” for themselves within the chaos of southern life during this time?
16. Who were the maternal ancestors of the Delany sisters? Where did they live? What made them unique among southern blacks living in the South prior to the Civil War?
17. How many free blacks lived in the South by 1860?
18. What was the source or basis of the success of the black middle class that developed in the South after the Civil War?
19. When did the sister’s father become free? Who had owned him and his family?
20. To which famous African American did people often think that the Delanys were related?
21. What happened to many former slaves after slavery ended?
22. What did the sisters’ father have to give up in order to go to college at Saint Augustine’s School in Raleigh, North Carolina?
23. According to Sadie and Bessie, why did her grandmother and sisters have difficulty finding husbands?
24. When did marriages between blacks and whites
Study Guide
1. Where did Bessie and Sadie Delany grow up?
2. From which university did Bessie and Sadie Delany earn their degrees?
3. What professional achievement did each of the Delany sisters accomplish?
4. Did either Delany sister ever marry?
5. Where did their parents meet, marry, and rear them and their siblings? How many children did they have?
6. What was the original status of the Delany sisters’ parents?
7. What was their father’s occupation?
8. Define issue-free Negro.
9. According to Bessie, what is a Rebby?
10. What modern amenity did the Delany sisters not own?
11. To what religious denomination did the sisters belong?
12. Describe Bessie’s “full-time job”?
13. What did Bessie believe that oppressed people like colored folks and Jews have?
14. What unique celebration did the sisters enjoy every year? How did they celebrate this event?
15. What distinguished the Delanys from other blacks during the transitional period from the Civil War through Reconstruction? Why were they able to “make a niche” for themselves within the chaos of southern life during this time?
16. Who were the maternal ancestors of the Delany sisters? Where did they live? What made them unique among southern blacks living in the South prior to the Civil War?
17. How many free blacks lived in the South by 1860?
18. What was the source or basis of the success of the black middle class that developed in the South after the Civil War?
19. When did the sister’s father become free? Who had owned him and his family?
20. To which famous African American did people often think that the Delanys were related?
21. What happened to many former slaves after slavery ended?
22. What did the sisters’ father have to give up in order to go to college at Saint Augustine’s School in Raleigh, North Carolina?
23. According to Sadie and Bessie, why did her grandmother and sisters have difficulty finding husbands?
24. When did marriages between blacks and whites