Helen Keller
Born in Alabama in June 1880, Helen Keller was an American author, international speaker and campaigner. Which is all the more powerful considering she was both blind and deaf.
Helen was a bright young baby who learned to walk and was talking in her first year. However when she was 19 months old, she took a fever which left her unable to neither see nor hear. In her autobiography, The story of my life, she admits to being a wild child, frustrated because of her loss of senses and unable to communicate to those she loved. Her family sought a teacher to instruct and care for her. When Helen was 6 years old, Anne Sullivan, formerly blind herself, was assigned to work at Ivy Green, the Keller homestead. After some time, Anne managed to break through with Helen, fingerspelling words into her hands. She progressed to learn Braille and they worked together on Helen’s speech.
Helen enrolled in Radcliffe College at the age of 20, aided by Anne, and she graduated with a degree of Bachelor of Arts.
Helen devoted her life to working for the deaf and the blind, writing many books on this as well as her faith. Her book, How I Became a Socialist, was banned by the Nazis in Germany, because of their views on disabled people. Many copies would have been destroyed during the book burnings of 1933.
Anne and Helen had the most amazing teacher-student relationship and when Anne later married, Helen lived with them until Anne’s death in 1936.
Keller campaigned for those with disabilities, for women’s suffrage, labor rights, and world peace, visiting 35 countries from 1946 to 1957.
Many of her speeches and writings were about women's right to vote and the impacts of war; in addition, she supported causes that opposed military intervention. She had speech therapy in order to have her voice heard better by the public. Below are some extracts from speeches she gave, and where possible, the date and audience Helen spoke to:
“I want you to remember that blind children, and grown-up blind people, have feelings like you, and want the same things that you do. They want friends, they want to play, and they want to go to school and learn to be of some use in the world. Unless somebody helps them, they will be unhappy and discontented, just as you would be if nobody cared about you.”
“You have heard how I was taught how a little word dropped from the fingers of another, a ray of light from another soul touched the darkness of my mind, and I awoke to the sunshine and beauty of life. It was my teacher that gave me eyes and ears within my limitations, and opened the doors of opportunity and friendship for me.”
- Speech to Presbyterian Church in NYC advocating for the blind, December, 1930
“An organisation of women recently wanted to obtain a welfare measure from a legislature of New York. They took a petition signed by five thousand women to the chairman of the committee that was to report on the measure. He said it was a good bill, and ought to pass. But nothing was heard of it. After the women had waited a reasonable time, they sent up a request to know what had become of the bill. The chairman said he did not remember anything about it. He was reminded that the bill had been brought to him signed by five thousand women. "O," replied the chairman, "a bill signed by five thousand women is not worth the paper it is written on. Get five men to sign it and we’ll do something about it.” That is one reason we demand the vote - we want five thousand women to count for more than five men!”
“Women's influence cannot be eliminated from the world-struggle any more than the stars can be blotted out from the heavens, or the sea wiped from the earth. In vision I see them playing great roles in the drama of the future. Down the stream of the years they keep coming on--the strong women--the mothers of new generations. From the mountains, the prairies and the dark sea they come on, pulling the men with them ! I call, "All hail” to them, and give deep thanks for the Strong Women who keep coming on.”
- Speech given by Helen Keller to the Twentieth Century Club in Washington, 1922
I am so often asked to bring a message of encouragement to the unfortunate, I fear I overstress the thought that suffering is important to our spiritual development. Through suffering we may grow strong and overcome difficulties that we should otherwise not have courage to encounter.
- Speech in Long Island, NY asking for donations to made to the Milk Fund for children January 31, 1933
Helen died on June 1st, 1968 in Connecticut, a few weeks short of her eighty-eighth birthday.
She won the admiration of the world and her admirers in America referred to her as ‘The World’s First Lady of Courage.’ In 2003, Alabama honoured its native daughter on its state quarter with the banner, ‘spirit of courage’. The Alabama state quarter is the only circulating US coin to feature braille.
Sometimes people would ask me, "What gives you the courage to go on?" I answered, "The Bible and poetry and philosophy." When they asked, "How do you feel when God seems to desert you?" I had to answer, "I never had that feeling."
