Annie Elizabeth "Bessie" Delany
September 3, 1891 — September 25, 1995 — Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
Annie Elizabeth "Bessie" Delany was an American dentist who became only the second Black woman licensed to practice dentistry in New York State. Decades after building a quiet, dignified career in Harlem, she found unexpected fame at 101 years old as co-subject of the bestselling oral history 'Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years.' Her life spanned more than a century of American history, from the last years of Reconstruction to the eve of the twenty-first century.
Early Life
Bessie Delany was born on September 3, 1891, in Raleigh, North Carolina, one of ten children of Henry Beard Delany, a former slave who rose to become the first Black person elected a bishop in the Episcopal Church, and Nanny James Logan Delany, a schoolteacher. Raised on the campus of St. Augustine's School (later College), where her father served as vice principal, Bessie grew up in a household that prized education and self-discipline despite the harsh realities of Jim Crow segregation in the South. She and her elder sister, Sarah "Sadie" Delany, were extraordinarily close throughout their lives, both determined from a young age to pursue professional careers at a time when doors were closed to Black women. Bessie trained as a teacher and taught in rural North Carolina schools before deciding to pursue further education. In the early 1920s, she moved to New York City, joining the wave of Southern Black migrants seeking greater opportunity, and enrolled at Columbia University's College of Dental and Oral Surgery, one of the few institutions willing to admit a Black woman to a professional program.
Career as a Pioneering Dentist
In 1923, Bessie Delany earned her Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from Columbia University, becoming only the second Black woman licensed to practice dentistry in the state of New York. She opened a dental practice in Harlem, where she treated patients of all races and backgrounds and became affectionately known to her community as "Dr. Bessie." Committed to fairness, she famously charged the same fee—five dollars—to every patient regardless of race, a quiet but firm act of egalitarianism during an era of pervasive discrimination. She practiced dentistry in Harlem for decades, building a loyal clientele and earning respect as a skilled, no-nonsense professional in a field almost entirely closed to women of color. Alongside her professional work, Bessie witnessed and lived through the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Depression, and the civil rights movement, remaining a sharp, outspoken observer of American racial politics throughout her long career. She eventually retired from active practice but continued living independently, sharing a home in Mount Vernon, New York, with her sister Sadie for many years.
Did You Know?
Bessie Delany didn't become a household name until she was 101 years old, when 'Having Our Say' turned her and her sister Sadie into unlikely literary celebrities. As a young dentist in Harlem, she charged every patient the exact same fee of five dollars, refusing to discriminate by race even decades before the civil rights movement gained national momentum.
Later Life and Legacy
Bessie Delany's remarkable life became widely known only in her final years. In 1993, journalist Amy Hill Hearth published 'Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years,' an oral history drawn from interviews with Bessie, then 101, and Sadie, 103. The book became a surprise bestseller, was adapted into a hit Broadway play, and later a television film, introducing millions of readers to the sisters' unflinching, often witty recollections of a century marked by both hardship and triumph. The Delany sisters followed with a second book, 'The Delany Sisters' Book of Everyday Wisdom,' cementing their status as beloved American storytellers. Bessie Delany died on September 25, 1995, at the home she shared with Sadie in Mount Vernon, New York, at the age of 104. Her legacy endures as both a trailblazer in dentistry and a living witness to American history, whose late-life fame gave voice to generations of Black women whose achievements had gone largely unrecorded. Sadie survived her by four years, living to age 109.
