Content area
Full text
In Memoriam Sarah Louise Delany: 1889-1999
In the 1930s Sarah "Sadie" Delany dreamed of teaching home economics in a New York City high school. But she was black and the only teaching assignment open to her was at a Negro elementary school. Ms. Delany wrote to the city Board of Education applying for a teaching job at the high school level. Officials replied that there was a position available and that she should come in to discuss it. Ms. Delany knew that if they saw the color of her skin she would have been refused the position. So she wrote a letter to the authorities saying that there had been a mixup scheduling her interview. She then simply showed up on the first day of classes at Theodore Roosevelt High School and began to teach. Despite...