Mark Twain

"Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured."
----Mark Twain


I found this quote and thought it was very interesting how Twain talked about anger. I feel this quote is very true. Anger can hurt other people and relationships can be broken, but I think anger does do more harm to the beholder. The person who is angry spends a lot of their time trying to cope with this anger: whether by yelling at other people or beating themselves up inside and out. Anger can be very destructive because some people just do not know what to do with it. They do not know how to handle it. I feel it is very hard for a person to let go of their anger at times. People say just let go of it. It is easier said then done for an outsider to say. We, as humans, have trouble dropping situations that make us mad. We want to keep going and going until we get our way. This can change we were are as a person and destroy us!

Civil Rights Movement

http://www.crmvet.org/nars/conway.htm

George Conway was a Civil Rights Movement activist. He visted St. Augustine to see some relatives. Sadie and Bessie grew up at St. Augustine. I wonder if they ever met. Conway became involved right away in the Civil Rights Movement at St. Augustines. He would march with the old and young before MLK came to preach and lead. He was arrested. The marches usually ended the 'slave market.' One day the KKK dumped bricks by the market. When the march ended, the KKK threw bricks at the demonstrators. This reminded me of the Anne Moody story. Anne Moody and her friends were hit, slapped, kicked, and dragged around, but they did not budge. They stood their ground. The whites were not going to stop them. Also in HOS, the KKK was a problem. The sisters still spoke for what they believed in and always got away from the KKK. George Conway was not afraid to do what was right and stand up for his beliefs. In all three stories, the demonstrators did not attack back at the white people.

Harlem

In the book, Having Our Say, the Delany sisters talk a lot about Harlem. Bessie shared a dentist office with her brother on Seventh Avenue.
By reading the websites, I figure while Bessie would go outside she would see the Mother A.M.E. Zion Church or the red brick building where James Weldon Johnson lived. The view from the dentist office must have been amazing with all the different types of architecture and new houses. Sadie and Bessie would talk to people like Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. Many famous people the sisters met were in the dentist office. The dentist office was a meeting place for everybody. Du Bois graduated from Harvard with a Ph.D. He was very much involved in African American life. He was involved in the Niagara Movement. He also urged African artists to create art from their experiences in the past. The sisters moved to Harlem at the start of a great period. They loved the jazz music but thought Harlem was really busy. Jazz musicians played at Minton's Playhouse. The Delany sisters experienced history when they lived in Harlem.

Tom Feelings

This piece of artwork reminds me of Bessie's fight to get what she wants. In Having Our Say, Sadie was much more laid back. She thought she could win the battle in the classroom with civil rights and equality. Bessie on the other hand liked to get her hands dirty with the movement. She was the one who would be on the streets standing up for what she believed in with other people. The people in the picture do not look like they are going to back down. I feel Bessie had this attitude and look to her too. She was ready to fight if it meant giving up everything just to stand up for what she believed in.

source: http://archive.liveauctioneers.com/archive4/bloomsburyauctionsny/20063/0016_1_lg.jpg