Breaking Barriers: The Inspiring Journey of Helen Keller.

"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow." ~Helen Keller

Helen Adams Keller was an American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer. She was also blind and deaf. 

Born on June 27th, 1880, in West Tuscumbia, Alabama, Helen started speaking when she was just 6 months old and started walking at the age of 1. Sadly, Helen lost her sight and her hearing after contracting "brain fever" when she was only 19 months old. 

By the time Helen was seven years old, she and Martha Washington, the family cook's daughter, had developed a type of sign language. During this time Helen was very frustrated and became unruly. She tormented Martha and inflicted raging tantrums on her parents leaving many relatives to feel that she should be institutionalized. 

Desperate to help her, her parents sought the advice of Alexander Grahm Bell, who was working with deaf children at the time. Bell suggested the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston. While at the institute, it was suggested that the family work with one of the institute's most recent graduates at the time, Joanna Mansfield Sullivan. Sullivan had graduated head of her class, was an experienced teacher and was partially visually impaired. 

On March 3, 1887, Sullivan arrived at Helen's home in Alabama and began teaching with love and patience. She spelled the world "Doll" in Helen's hand in attempts to associate it with the doll she had brought the child as a present.

Initially, Helen was curious but soon became defiant and uncooperative. Sullivan noticed Helen failed to associate the objects with the letters spelled in her hand. Despite this, Sullivan persisted, and continued to guide Helen.

As Helen's frustration escalated and her tantrums became more frequent, Sullivan insisted that she and Helen be separated from the family for a period to ensure that Helen could focus solely on her teachings. Consequently, they relocated to a cottage on the plantation.

Sullivan introduced the word "water" to Helen by guiding her to a water pump and placing her hand under the spout. As Sullivan pumped the cool water over Helen's hand, she spelled out the letters w-a-t-e-r on Helen's other hand. This helped Helen make the connection between the object and the word. Helen grasped the concept and mirrored the word in Sullivan's hand. By the end of the day, she had mastered 30 words.

With Sullivan's extraordinary teachings Helen's mood improved and she learned to understand and communicate with the world around her. Helen learned to read and write in Braille and to use the hand signals, which she could understand only by touch. She also learned to use a typewriter.

Helen learned to speak with the help of Sarah Fuller using her fingers to feel Sarah's lips and throat when she spoke. Helen dedicated a significant portion of her life to delivering speeches and lectures about her experiences.

Helen studied at schools for the deaf in Boston and New York City with Sullivan repeating the lectures into her hand. At twelve she published an autobiographical sketch in the Youth’s Companion.

As Helen's story gained public attention, she started meeting notable and influential figures. Among them was the writer Mark Twain, who found her remarkable and befriended her. Twain then introduced her to his acquaintance, Henry H. Rogers, an executive at Standard Oil. Struck by Helen's abilities, ambition, and resolve, Rogers decided to finance her education at Radcliffe College which she was accepted to at just 16. 

During her junior year at Radcliffe, Helen authored her first book, "The Story of My Life," which remains available in over fifty languages. Persevering in her academic endeavors, she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in 1904 at the age of 24, becoming the first individual with deaf blindness to attain such a degree.

Shortly after her college graduation, Helen joined the Socialist Party and spoke out for women's suffrage and demanded better access to birth control. She also penned numerous articles on socialism and endorsed Eugene Debs, the Socialist Party's candidate for president. Helen emerged as a powerful advocate for the rights of individuals with disabilities and for women's rights. This also resulted in her being monitored by the FBI.

It was during this period that Helen first encountered public bias regarding her disabilities. Throughout most of her life, she had received overwhelming support from the press but once she revealed her socialist beliefs, some began to criticize her by highlighting her disabilities. The Brooklyn Eagle newspaper commented that her ""mistakes sprung out of the manifest limitations of her development."

Following her college education, she embarked on a journey to expand her understanding of the world and to explore ways she could contribute to enhancing the lives of others. Helen conveyed her experiences to various audiences and provided testimony before Congress, fervently championing the betterment of the blind community's welfare.

In 1905 Sullivan married Harvard instructor and social critic John Macy and Keller lived with them in Forest Hills, Queens.

Just before World War I, Helen Keller discovered that she could experience music through the vibrations by placing her fingertips on a resonant surface, with the help of the Zoellner Quartet.

In 1914 a young woman named Polly Thomson began working as a secretary for Helen and Sullivan.

In 1915, Helen co-founded Helen Keller International, an organization dedicated to fighting the causes and consequences of blindness and malnutrition.

In 1916 Sullivan became ill and Boston reporter Peter Fagan served as a replacement secretary. He and Hellen fell in love and wished to marry. However, it was the interference from Hellen's family, who believed that the deafblind Helen could fulfill the roles of a wife and mother, that ultimately ended the relationship.

In 1918, Helen made a silent movie in Hollywood, Deliverance, to dramatize the plight of the blind. For two year she also performed on the vaudeville stage much to Sullivan's dismay.

Helen helped found the American Civil Liberties Union in 1920.

In 1924 Helen became a member of the American Federation for the Blind and participated in many campaigns to raise awareness, money and support. She garnered significant donations from Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, and key figures in the motion picture industry. When a branch for the overseas blind, it was named Helen Keller International.

Helen also became involved with other organizations committed to aiding the underprivileged, such as the Permanent Blind War Relief Fund.

Sullivan experienced health problems and in 1932 lost her eyesight completely. In 1936 she fell into a coma as a result of coronary thrombosis and passed away with Hellen holding her hand. This is when Polly Thomson, became Helen's constant companion. Helen and Thomson moved to Connecticut. They traveled worldwide and raised funds for the blind.

Also, in 1936 Helen received the Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal.

Helen offered her support to soldiers blinded during World War II.

In 1946, Helen Keller was appointed as a counselor for international relations by the American Foundation for the Overseas Blind, and she visited 35 countries across five continents.

In 1953, Helen received a nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1955, Helen, at the age of 75, undertook a challenging journey. She covered 40,000 miles in five months, traversing Asia. Her numerous speeches and appearances provided inspiration and encouragement to millions.

In 1957, Thomson suffered a stroke from which she never fully recovered, passing away in 1960. Winnie Corbally, a nurse who was initially employed to look after Thomson, continued to stay on after her death and became Helen's companion for the remainder of her life.

Also in 1957 Helen's autobiography, "The Story of My Life," served as the inspiration for the television drama "The Miracle Worker." Later, in 1959, it was adapted into a Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play with the same name, featuring Patty Duke as Helen Keller and Anne Bancroft as her teacher, Anne Sullivan. Duke and Bancroft reprised their roles in the critically acclaimed 1962 film adaptation of the play.

In 1964 Helen received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and in 1965 was elected to the Women's Hall of Fame.

Helen was also awarded honorary doctoral degrees from Temple University, Harvard University, and the universities of Glasgow in Scotland, Berlin in Germany, Delhi in India, and Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Additionally, she received the title of Honorary Fellow from the Educational Institute of Scotland.

In 1961 Helen suffered a series of strokes and spent the remaining years of her life at her home in Connecticut.

On June 1st, 1968, just a few weeks before her 88th birthday Helen died in her sleep. Her ashes are interred at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC.