Mount Rushmore National Memorial: Helen Keller

Exactly seventy-five years ago, the construction of Mount Rushmore National Memorial finished. Completed under the direction of Gutzon and Lincoln Borglum from 1927–1941, the sculpture's roughly 60-ft.-high granite faces depict U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. These U.S. presidents were known to be brave, courageous, and good role models to Americans. I fully agree that these people are important to the American history, but I also believe that there are many other people who deserve to have their faces depicted on this significant monument. My first choice is Helen Keller, a deaf-blind person who was an American author, political activist and lecturer. My second choice is Martin Luther
Anne Sullivan arrived at Keller's house in March 1887, and immediately began to teach Helen to communicate by spelling words into her hand, beginning with "d-o-l-l" for the doll that she had brought Keller as a present. On October 20, 1936, Anne Sullivan, Helen’s teacher and companion died in a coma with Helen holding her hand. Helen along with Percy Thompson, Anne’s housekeeper and Helen’s companion, moved to Connecticut. Keller went on to become a world-famous speaker and author. Keller traveled to over forty countries, making several trips to Japan and became a favorite of the Japanese people. Keller met every U.S. President from Grover Cleveland to Lyndon B. Johnson and was friends with many famous figures, including Alexander Graham Bell, Charlie Chaplin and Mark Twain. Keller wrote a total of 12 published books and several articles. On September 14, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the United States' two highest civilian honors. In 1965 she was elected to the National Women's Hall of Fame at the New York World's Fair. She died in her sleep on June 1, 1968, at her home, Arcan Ridge, located in Easton, Connecticut, a few weeks short of her eighty-eighth birthday. Keller was a person who was dedicated to achieve her goals and did not let her blindness and deafness stop
As a child in Dorchester County, Maryland, Tubman was raised as a slave and beaten by masters to whom she was hired out. Early in her life, she suffered a severe head wound when hit by a heavy metal weight. The injury caused disabling epileptic seizures, headaches, powerful visions, and dream experiences, which occurred throughout her life. Tubman escaped from slavery in 1849 and supported herself by working in Philadelphia hotels before relocating to Canada and, later, New York. In 1850 she went to Maryland to save her family members. During the Civil War, Tubman worked as a nurse and a spy for the Union army in South Carolina, where she was known as General Tubman. After the war, Tubman returned to Auburn, New York, where she spoke at women's suffrage meetings with other prominent figures such as Susan B.