Witnessing History
The Life and Times of the Delany Family
By Fiona Kyle, Artistic Apprentice
1858
Henry Beard Delany is born in St. Marys, Georgia as a “house slave.”
1861
Nanny James Logan is born in Danville, Virginia as an “issue-free Negro,” a person whose mother is not a slave.
1865
The Civil War between the Union and the Confederate States ends May 9.
The 13th Amendment passes on January 31, 1865 and abolishes slavery in the United States.
1886
Henry Delany marries his St. Augustine’s School classmate Nanny Logan, the class valedictorian.
(Sadie left, Bessie at her feet)
1889
Sarah Louse “Sadie” Delany, the second child of ten, is born to Henry and Nanny Delany.
1891
Annie Elizabeth “Bessie” Delany, the third child in the Delany family, is born.
1896
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson to uphold the constitutionality of state laws requiring racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine. This ruling solidifies the establishment of the Jim Crow era.
1909
Civil Rights Activists Moorfield Storey, Mary White Ovington, and W.E.B. Du Bois found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
1910
Halley’s Comet, the only known comet visible to the naked eye, makes its first appearance of the 20th century.
1914
All Southern states have now imposed Jim Crow laws that relegate African Americans to a lower status than Caucasians.
1917
Bessie moves to Harlem, New York, where Sadie moved the year prior.
1918
Sadie graduates from the Pratt Institute and enrolls at Teachers College, Columbia University.
1919
Bessie enrolls at the Columbia School of Dental and Oral Surgery at Columbia University.
1920
Sadie graduates from Teachers College, Columbia University and begins teaching at P.S. 119 in Harlem.
American women win the right to vote when the 19th Amendment passes.
1923
Bessie graduates from the Columbia School of Dental and Oral Surgery at Columbia University.
1925
Sadie graduates with her Master’s Degree in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.
Bessie begins her dental practice at 2305 Seventh Avenue on 135th Street.
1928
Henry Beard Delany dies at age 70. His funeral takes place in the chapel he designed at St. Augustine’s School.
1929
The U.S. stock market crashes and sends the industrialized world into the Great Depression, which lasts for ten years.
1930
Paul Robeson performs Othello in London.
1939
Marian Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial after the Daughters of the American Revolution denied her access to sing at Constitution Hall. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigns her membership of the DAR.
1947
Jackie Robinson, the first African-American in Major League Baseball, plays his first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
1950
Bessie retires from her dental practice.
Due to his work as an activist, Paul Robeson is blacklisted from music halls, recording and film studios.
1954
The Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education overturns the “separate but equal” system in educational facilities.
1955
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on the bus and is arrested for civil disobedience in Montgomery, Alabama. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. organizes the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
1956
Nanny Delany dies at the age of 95.
1957
Sadie and Bessie move to Mount Vernon, New York.
1960
Sadie retires from teaching.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of 1960 into law. The Act levies penalties to anyone who obstructs someone from attempting to register to vote and establishes federal inspection of voter registration polls.
I Have A Dream Speech
1963
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech at the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It ends racial segregation in schools, at the work place, and other facilities for the general public.
1968
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy are assassinated.
The Civil Rights Act of 1968, known as the Fair Housing Act, prohibits discrimination concerning sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, sex, and national origin.
1986
Halley’s Comet returns. Sadie and Bessie witness it for the second time.
1991
Amy Hill Hearth writes “Two ‘Maiden Ladies’ with Century-Old Stories to Tell” feature on the Delany sisters for The New York Times.
1993
Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years written by Sarah L. Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth is published.
1995
Having Our Say, the play adapted by Emily Mann, opens on Broadway.
The Delany Sisters’ Book of Everyday Wisdom written by Amy Hill Hearth, A. Elizabeth Delany, and Sarah Delany is published.
Bessie dies at 104.
1998
On My Own at 107: Reflections on Life Without Bessie written by Amy Hill Hearth and Sarah Louise Delany is published.
1999
The average life expectancy in the United States is 76.
Sadie dies at 109.
