"Both more than one hundred years old, Sarah ("Sadie") Delany and her sister, Annie Elizabeth ("Bessie") Delany are among the oldest living witnesses to American history" Part 1, page 3.

"People learned not to mess with me from Day One" Part 1, chapter 2, page 9.

"Funny thing is, some days I feel like a young girl and other days I'm feeling the grave, just a-feeling the grave" Part 1, chapter 3, page 18.

"In the decades after the Civil War, "education" became the rallying cry of those seeking to improve the lot of former slaves, whose prospects were limited usually to hard labor in the fields or to domestic work in white people's homes" Part 3, page 39.

"Black colleges were the crucial stepping stone to progress, and they flourished" Part 3, page 39.

"I take after Mama's people. Mama could be very feisty, and somehow like me, she lived to tell about it" Part 3, chapter 9, page 54.

"We encountered...