Helen Keller’s Legacy

Helen Keller was an author and civil rights advocate in the very earliest social justice movements in the united states. Born in 1880 in Alabama. She contracted an illness when she was just over one and a half years old which caused her to lose both sight and hearing completely. After learning to read write and speak from her life long friend Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller graduated Harvard’s Radcliffe college in 1904 with a bachelors of arts degree. She was also the first deafblind person to graduate from Harvard.

Hellen Keller was an advocate not only for the disability community, but also: woman’s suffrage, racial equality, class equality, and so much more. She took these values with her when she helped create many civil rights organizations including the Americans Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU was created as a response to the increasing oppressions many people were facing. They focused on Poverty, racial justice, woman’s rights, disability rights, and prohibition to name a few. Today, the ACLU also focuses on Immigration, LGBTQ+ rights, criminal justice and so many more.

Helen Keller’s influence didn’t stop at the ACLU however. She also helped create the Massachusetts Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired. She co founded Helen Keller International, an organization dedicated to help blind soldiers from world war 1. She also served as an ambassador for the United Nations, where she traveled the world advocating for civil rights.

Helen Keller’s organizations are yet another example of how much we need people with disabilities to lead and be rooted into programs that support the welfare of people. The ACLU is the number one civil rights organization in the world right now, as well as the NAACP, another organization which Helen Keller was an early supporter.