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When you pull the recepticle out of the wall you will notice that the brass terminals (with the black wires attached either by wrapping around the screws or plunged into the the back) have a breakaway tab removed--this allows the "hot" side (small slot) to be independent, i.e., switched top and perm. "hot" bottom. The silver or "neutral" side will not likely have the tab removed since all "neutral" wires are essentially tied together anyhow, as described in an above post. It is therefore essential that you connect the black wire going from the recepticle location to your first sconce to the top half of the brass terminal on the receptacle. The white wire can go anywhere on the neutral side.
One further caution-- depending on where the switch that controls the upper half of the receptacle is "fed", (gets power), it is possible that you will have to turn off 2 breakers to kill power to both halves of the recepticle. By NEC they are supposed to be on same circuit, but don't bet your life that they are.