Helen Keller, an American author, political activist, and lecturer, accomplished many things despite her incapability's. She was the first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor of arts degree, and was one of the many founders of ACLU (The Americans Civil Liberties Union). This is her story.
Helen Adams Keller was born on June 27th, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama. She was the first child of Capitan Arthur H. Keller and Katherine Adams Keller. Helen Keller was just like every other child. She began speaking when she was six months old, and learned to walk at a year old. When Keller was eighteen months old, she contracted an illness some doctors described as brain congestion. Modern technologies and doctors now say the illness could have been meningitis or scarlet fever. She ran a high fever and struggled with her vision. Her mother said that she began to not respond to loud noises, and soon, even her mother's voice. Keller became deaf and blind as a consequence from the illness. Succumbed in darkness and silence, she became a very wild, and unruly child. She could not control her emotions; she would scream and kick when she was angry and giggle or laugh when happy. Over time she began to get used to the disability and created many of her own signals to communicate her needs with her parents. She would tie her hair in a bun when she wanted her mother, and created an eating motion with her hands when she wanted food.
When Helen was six years old, her mother decided to contact Alexander Graham, Bell who was working on an invention to help deaf people with their hearing. Bell suggested that they contact The Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston, Massachusetts. With further discussion and thought her parents decided to send Keller to the Perkins Institute for the Blind. Helen's mother read the travelogue American Notes by Charles Dickens. In it, Laura Bridgeman, a girl with the same ailments as Helen, accomplished a successful education under Dr. J. Julian Chisolm. Katherine immediately sent Helen and her father to Baltimore to see Chisolm, who recommended Alexander Graham Bell. He, in turn, advised for the little girl to visit the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston. The Kellers met Michael Anaganos, the school's director, who introduced them to the newly graduated Anne Sullivan. On march 3, 1887 Anne Sullivan went to Tuscumbia to serve as her teacher. At the hands of her instructor she learned that every object had a name; and, after much struggle, the first word she learned was water. Helen learned thirty more words that day. The way Anne Sullivan taught her was by spelling out the word of the object on one hand with the object being placed in her other hand. Anne was with her day and night, constantly spelling into her hand the words and ideas of things going on around them, and was a quick learner. In only three years she learned the manual alphabet (sign language), the Braille alphabet (an alphabet created by Louis Braille [1809–1852] for the blind that relies on raised dots to communicate), and was able to read and write.
In 1890, Helen took classes at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Boston. Then, from 1894 to 1896, she attended the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf in New York city where she learned to communicate better and took regular courses. Keller, being a headstrong girl, was determined to go to college. She went to Cambridge College for Young Ladies in 1896 and began to meet important people as her story spread. Perhaps the most significant man she met in her youth was author Mark Twain, who never failed to be impressed by the girl's intellect and determination. Twain introduced her to Henry H. Rogers, a Standard Oil Executive, who, in awe, agreed to pay Helen's tuition at Radcliffe College. In total, Helen mastered Braille, typing, lip reading, speech, and finger-spelling. Then, with the assistance of Sullivan and John Macy, Anne's future husband, she wrote The Story of my Life, an autobiography that spanned her childhood up to her twenty-first year. Helen graduated from Radcliffe college Magna Cum Laude in 1904 when she was twenty-four years old.
Helen lived with the Macys after their marriage in 1905, although Anne's unabated attention to Keller eventually caused her to separate from her husband.
After graduating from college, Helen began to partake in social causes, taking on issues like suffrage, peace, and birth control. She testified before congress in order to improve the welfare of blind people. In 1915, she co-founded the Helen Keller International with fellow city-planner George Kessler, which strived to serve victims of blindness and malnutrition.
She also partook in other associations to help blind people like the American Federation for the Blind in 1924 and the Permanent Blind War Relief Fund (American Braille Press.)
She also became a socialist fresh out of college, most probably because of John Macy. This gave life to a collection of essays she wrote between 1909 and 1921 named "Out of the Dark" which explained her views on socialism and world affairs and where she showed support towards Eugene Debs, a socialist.
However, with this choice, Helen first began to experience discrimination from people who disliked her for being a socialist and so found a target in her disabilities.
Sadly, Anne Sullivan, after living with impaired vision all her life, went completely blind in 1932 and died on 0ctober 20, 1936 after suffering from a Coronary Thrombosis five days before. When Helen died, her ashes were put to rest besides those of Anne, who had been her teacher and companion for 49 years. Polly Thompson, a secretary for the two women since 1914, became Helen's new guide.
Keller was appointed counselor of the International Relations for the American Foundation of Overseas Blind in 1946. She then took to traveling and achieved visiting 35 countries on five continents between the years of 1946 and 1957. Then, in 1955, Keller traveled 40,000 miles across Asia in five months at the age of 75 and used that opportunity to make speeches and bring inspiration to many people.
Keller's autobiography was used in a 1957 drama and a 1959 Broadway play with the same name.
After suffering from several strokes in 1961, Helen retired to her home in Connecticut. She won many honors and awards throughout her life, including the Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal in 1936, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964, and her inclusion in the Women's Hall of Fame in 1965. Included in these honors were honorary doctoral degrees from Temple and Harvard and from universities all over the world, such as Delhi, Berlin, Witwatersrand, and Glasgow, and was named Honorary Fellow of the Educational Institute of Scotland.
After living a long life as an active member of society, Keller died in her sleep on June 1, 1968.
Helen Keller experienced conflict in her hopes and dreams, since people would always think differently of her. Many times people would ignore or patronize her and not believe that she could learn or understand. Eventually, she accepted the fact that she just couldn’t do some of the things that people with sight and hearing could do. She found compromise by striving in academics, politics, and standing up for the rights for people with disabilities. She didn’t have to be able to see or hear, but she still overcame and fought he battle of life with indominable bravery. With five words, Helen Keller was able to express every detail of her suffering and compromise with life, and what she wished for disabled people in the future:
"I am not dumb now."