On June 27, 1880, Helen Adams Keller entered the world in Tuscambia, Alabama. And each year on June 27th we honor her with remembering her contribution with Helen Keller Day.
Her family had roots in the Confederate Army. Helen’s dad actually served as a captain, and her grandmother was a second cousin to Robert E. Lee. She was born with the ability to see and hear, but at 19 months became very ill. Some suspect that she had scarlet fever or meningitis. Either way, she lost her sight and hearing. Over the next seven years, Helen would learn about 60 signs to be able to communicate with her family, but these did not correlate to a formal education.
Helen’s mom sought out specialists for advice after reading about Laura Bridgman, who was deaf and blind but received an education. One doctor referred the family to Alexander Graham Bell, who sent the family to the Perkins Institute for the Blind. The school’s director sent Anne Sullivan to become Helen’s teacher. No one had any idea at the time that this was to be the beginning of a 49-year-long friendship.
The Miracle Worker
You might remember reading about Helen and Anne during your school years. Helen published an autobiography, “The Story of My Life,” which would be developed into a play, a Broadway production and a film. In 1962, the film won an Oscar, and it has been remade twice for television. None of these productions really hint at the person Helen became when she was much older and became a social activist.
Anne Sullivan was blind herself but received an education at the Perkins School for the Blind. Unlike Helen, who had a loving family around her, Anne lost her mother when she was about eight years old. Her father abandoned her and her brother two years later. The two children moved into an almshouse, where her brother died a few months later. Anne actually studied under Laura Bridgman, the same woman whose story inspired Helen’s mom to seek out help. When Anne graduated from Perkins, she was the valedictorian of her class. She had also had some operations that improved her vision.
Helen was actually considered a political radical during her time. That didn’t stop her from meeting every U.S. President from Grover Cleveland to Lyndon B. Johnson. Helen Keller is considered one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union. She advocated for people with disabilities, women’s rights to vote and birth control, just to name some of the causes about which she was passionate.
Anne Sullivan broke through Helen’s lack of language skill and enabled Helen to communicate with the world. It was Anne who helped Helen obtain the formal education that would take her to Radcliffe College where she became the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. Anne and Helen remained companions until Anne died in 1914, long after she finished her duties as a governess.
Commemorating Helen Keller
Helen Keller died in 1968, but her story is not forgotten. She has a museum in her honor in West Tuscumbia, Alabama. President Jimmy Carter authorized Helen Keller Day in 1980, the 100th anniversary of her birth. One town in Pennsylvania hosts an annual fashion show as a fundraiser in Helen’s honor. No one imaged that Helen would make such a difference in the lives of so many when she was born. Her illness practically crushed her hopes of a normal life, given the societal constraints at the time. Helen’s mom wouldn’t give up on her daughter. Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller changed society’s notion of how an individual with a disability should live. These two women bravely lived and became role models to millions. Celebrate Helen Keller on June 27, remembering all she overcame in order to make a difference in today’s world.