Helen Keller is Still Speaking

During the past week, I have encountered Helen Keller out of the blue several times. First, in a podcast done by a former student, then in a new project which has digitized her speeches and writings, and third the re-emergence of some articles I had read a few years ago.  Therefore, I have decided to write this week about her visit to West Virginia Wesleyan in May 1916.

Visit to Buckhannon

A capacity crowd welcomed Helen Keller and her teacher to Atkinson Auditorium at 2:45 on Tuesday, May 30, 1916. She had been scheduled to be here the week before, but was prevented by illness. Special trains had been scheduled to bring over three hundred area residents to hear her, and tickets had to be sold. Somehow all of this was able to be worked out and a capacity crowd of about 1,500 were present to hear her.

In the publicity for the originally planned time, one local paper mentioned that:

Helen Keller for twenty years has been the most talked of woman in America and when she lectures at the College chapel on Saturday night of this week she will be greeted by the largest crowd that has ever heard a speaker of whatever prominence in Buckhannon.

The article went on to say that “For Buckhannon to secure the great Helen Kellar is a distinct recognition of the intellectual standards of the town.” (Although they missspelled her name!)  The only places she was scheduled to speak in West Virginia were Buckhannon and Huntington.

The Record reported that on May 30th:

According to schedule, Helen Keller, the most wonderful woman of the age, appeared at the College Auditorium on the afternoon of May 30; and not-withstanding the former disappointment, a very large and eager crowd greeted her. The seating capacity of the auditorium was taxed, and the balcony was well filled for this was indeed a rare occasion, and one that was highly appreciated by all who were permitted to be present.

A Bit About Helen Keller

When we think of Helen Keller, we tend only to focus on the part of her life where she was deaf, blind, and dumb. We have somewhat of an image in our mind from “The Miracle Worker” – either the Broadway version or from the 1962 film version with Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke.  We tend not to think of her as an academic, a political activist, and one who fought for the rights of various groups in society. I wonder what the gathered crowds thought they might hear when she spoke on campus that day.

The truth is that during her visit to Buckhannon, Helen was 36 years old and the college itself was only 26 years old. She had already been educated at the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, MA and the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf in New York City. She had done college prepatory work at the Cambridge School for Young Ladies, which was the first time she had been in school with sighted and hearing classmates. Finally, her dream of going to college became a reality, and in 1904 she graduated from Radcliffe College (now part of Harvard University). She graduated Cum Laude, was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and was the first deaf-blind person ever to earn a Bachelor of Arts Degree.

Introductions and Getting Started

Anne Sullivan Macy, Helen’s teacher, was introduced by Dr. Wallace B. Fleming (who was only nine months into his presidency).  Mrs. Macy explained about Helen’s early life, and about the experiences that followed, before leading her out onto the stage.

 Miss Keller then recited Longfellow’s familiar Psalm of Life, so as to accustom her hearers to her enunciation, which is still far from being distinct. Then she spoke of the great possibilities of life; of this good world, and her happiness in it; and of how “much better it will still be when all have tried to make it so, as she wants to do.”

This poem had been a favorite of hers for many years. The messages of optimism and possibility were major themes of her life.

She never hesitated to use her voice to advocate for the causes she believed in. I’ll just include a few, but she had many.

NAACP

Although her father had been a commanding officer in the Confederate Army, and she was born in Alabama in 1880, she was a strong advocate for racial  equality. For example, on February 13, 1916 she wrote a letter to Mr. Oswald Garrison Villard, Vice President of the NAACP who lived in Clarksburg, WV.  You can read the full letter here.

I include some excerpts, but the entire eight pages are worth reading:

I am indeed whole-heartedly with you and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. I warmly endorse your efforts to bring before the country the facts about the unfair treatment of the colored people in some parts of the United States.

It should bring the blush of shame to the face of every true American to know that ten miillions of his countrymen are denied the equal protection of the laws.

Nay, let me say it, this great republic of ours is a mockery when citizens in any section are denied the rights which the Constitution guarantees them, when they are openly evicted, terrorized and lynched by prejudiced mobs, and their persecutors and murderers are allowed to walk abroad unpunished. The United States stands ashamed before the world whilst ten millions of its people remain victims of a most blind, stupid, inhuman prejudice.

Suffrage

Helen Keller was a strong advocate for the Suffrage Movement. For example, On June 11, 1916, only twelve days after she spoke in Buckhannon, she addressed the new Woman’s Party in Chicago to endorse the movement. Again, I include an excerpt as well as the link to her full speech. 

We have prayed, we have coaxed, we have begged, for the vote, with the hope that men, out of chivalry, would bestow equal rights upon women and take them into partnership in the affiars of the state. We hoped that their common sense would triumph over prejudices and stupidity. We thought their boasted sense of justice would overcome the errors that so often fetter the human spirit; but we have always gone away empty handed.

We shall beg no more. The the ballow (ball now?) in our hands, we demand suffrage for all women.

Labor

Helen Keller believed that many cases of blindness were caused by injuries in the workplace. She advocated for labor laws and regulations, especially those concerning Child Labor.  In September 1916, about three months after her visit to Buckhannon, the Child Labor Act of 1916 was passed in the U.S. Congress. I would suspect that she may have talked about it during that afternoon in Atkinson.

The very same day that she spoke here, she received a letter from Lucy Mason, who worked with Factory Girls in Richmond, VA through a Y.W.C.A. program. She was writing to tell of the impact of Helen Keller on these girls. The full letter is here. An excerpt:

I quoted passages from your letters and addresses and it was good to see how such high, true thoughts find a welcome in lives that have been cramped and deadened by too much work and too little play and education. It made me realize the potential lovliness of all human life under the best conditions. If packing cigarettes nine or ten hours a day in the roar of machinery, and going home to squalid homes packed close on dusty streets leaves a girl’s soul with so much appreciation of beauty in it still, what might she be if her sense of beauty and goodness were developed by environment and training.

Questions From The Crowd

As was her custom, Miss Keller took questions from the audience. The Record reports:

Then she spoke of the great possibilities of life; of this good world, and her happiness in it; and of how “much better it will still be when all have tried to make it so, as she wants to do.” (In answer to) several interesting questions asked her by auditors, such as what she thought of President Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and her views on Equal Suffrage, she answered with a promptness and intelligence that could hardly have been surpassed. She wholly approved of the Wilson administration; and shook her head and frowned concerning T.R. as president, and added “If he were in the saddle there is no telling where he would drive to.” She said she was in favor of equal suffrage because she felt that it took both men and women to run the affairs of the world. In answer to the question as to how she kept in touch with the outside world, her teacher showed how the current events of the day were spelled into her hand at the rate of eighty-five words the minute, and she has many books in raised letters as well as a few leading magazines. 

Message for All

Helen Keller had many prominent friends. She had, for example, been close friends with Alexander Graham Bell since 1886 and Mark Twain since 1895. Throughout her life, she met many well-known people and shared her messages with them.  She dedicated her 1903 autobiography The Story of My Life to Alexander Graham Bell.  You can read many of her books online here.

Those in attendance that afternoon in May 1916 in Buckannon were living in a time of great social upheaval. Many would be sent to fight in World War I. Many would become public officials, educators, and church leaders. Many would have been from farms, mines, and factories in the area. Many would have been women who needed to hear these words of support, and to remember them when the ratification of the suffrage amendment did not pass in WV that November.

No wonder Helen Keller came to my attention so many times just this week, nearly 104 years after her visit to Buckhannon. She has inspired, and is still inspiring, many people to do their best and to be their best. Her themes sound a bit familiar to us all these years later.

How amazing that a woman who was blind,  deaf, and dumb could see and hear so clearly – and is still speaking to us today.