Helen Keller
The Beginning Stuggle
Helen Keller at age 2 caught something the family doctor called Brain fever. She had lost both her hearing and her sight at an age of 19 months. Helen later meets Anne Sullivan and she starts taking lessons but Helen was getting frustrated and not being cooperative. At a cottage on the plantation Anne teaches Helen the word water and it didn't stop there. Helen would learn 30 words by night fall. She finally had a way to communicate with others
Contribution to the world
- She tackled Political and Social Issues, Women's Suffrage, Pacifism, and Birth Control
- In 1915 she co-founded Helen Keller International to combat the causes and consequences of blindness and malnutrition
- In 1920 she helped found The American Civil Liberties Union
- She became a member of American Federation For The Blind in 1924
- She also joined groups that help the less fortunate like The Permanent Blind War Relief Fund (American Braille Press)
- In 1946 she was appointed Counselor Of International Relation for The American Foundation Of Overseas Blind
- Between 1946 and 1957 she traveled to 35 countries and 5 continents and bringing inspiration and encouragement to many people
- At age 21 she wrote the Book "Story Of My Life" it covered her transformation from young child to 21 and in college it showed her struggles and how she over came them
INTERESTING FACTS
- Soon after she graduated college she became part of the socialist party
- between 1909 and 1921 she wrote a few articles and supported the socialist presidential candidate
- she was prejudiced of her disabilities after this and was called out because of them to
- She had a series of strokes in 1961 that caused her to stay in her house for he last few years of her life
- she had many accomplishments in her life time. she was awarded the Theodore Roosevelt distinguished service medal in 1936, The Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964, and election to the women's hall of fame in 1964
- she received honorary doctoral degrees from Temple University; and from the universities of Glasgow, Scotland, Berlin, Germany, Delhi, Witwatersrand
- she was also named Marathoner Fellow of the educational institute of Scotland
Cited sources
Biography.com Editors,Helen Keller Biography,The Biography.com website,December 9, 2015,http://www.biography.com/people/helen-keller-9361967