Annie Elizabeth Delany
Annie Elizabeth "Bessie" Delany (3 September 1891 - 25 September 1995) was an American dentist and civil rights pioneer who was the subject, along with her sister Sarah Louise Delany Sadie, of the New York Times bestselling oral history, Having Our Say, written by journalist Amy Hill Hearth. Delany earned a Doctor of Dental Surgery Degree from Columbia University in 1923. She was the second Black woman licensed to practice dentistry in New York State, and became famous, with the publication of the book, at the age of 101.
Read more about Annie Elizabeth Delany: Biography, Death, The Delany Sisters, Bibliography
Famous quotes by annie elizabeth delany:
“[My mother told me:] ‘You must decide whether you want to get married someday, or have a career.’... I set my sights on the career. I thought, what does any man really have to offer me?”
—Annie Elizabeth Delany (b. 1891)
“I am a colored woman or a Negro woman. Either one is OK. People dislike those words now. Today these use this term African American. It wouldn’t occur to me to use that. I prefer to think of myself as an American, that’s all!”
—Annie Elizabeth Delany (b. 1891)
“...you don’t have to be as good as white people, you have to be better or the best. When Negroes are average, they fail, unless they are very, very lucky. Now, if you’re average and white, honey, you can go far. Just look at Dan Quayle. If that boy was colored he’d be washing dishes somewhere.”
—Annie Elizabeth Delany (b. 1891)
“You are not a doctor of dentistry! You are a doctor of segregation!”
—Annie Elizabeth Delany (b. 1891)
“There are certain stereotypes that are offensive. Some of them don’t worry me, though. For instance, I have always thought that Mammy character in Gone with the Wind was mighty funny. And I just loved ‘Amos ‘n’ Andy’ on the radio. So you see, I have enough confidence in myself that those things did not bother me. I could laugh.”
—Annie Elizabeth Delany (b. 1891)