On Friday, Alabama officials unveiled statues of two indomitable native daughters – civil rights activist Rosa Parks and disability pioneer Helen Keller.

The move, unanimously approved by the state legislature in 2019, makes Ms. Parks and Ms. Keller the first women to be depicted among the many monuments on the Capitol grounds in Montgomery.

And it underscores how, in overcoming limitations, both women overturned restrictive societal views and values about individual ability and worth. While they faced vastly different challenges, their lives are entwined by a common thread of quiet determination and dignity.

Ms. Keller (1880–1968) was born as Jim Crow racial segregation was taking root in the southern United States. Her white family had sufficient means to find help when she lost both sight and hearing after a childhood illness. Ms. Parks (1913–2005) grew up in poverty on a farm where her grandfather often kept watch all night, rifle at hand, to fend off the Ku Klux Klan.

Eventually, Ms. Keller learned to communicate through a combination of Braille and lipreading. She graduated from Radcliffe College and became an inspiring advocate for individuals with disabilities. She also co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union and supported the NAACP.

Ms. Keller exuded vitality and optimism, according to a New York Times report. “My life has been happy” with friends and “interesting work,” she said. “I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad.”

Ms. Parks, who earned a high school diploma and worked as a seamstress, was an active member of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP well before her iconic act of protest. In December 1955, she defied local laws and refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. And it wasn’t because she was worn out and wanted to rest her feet.

“No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in,” Ms. Parks wrote in her autobiography. Her arrest sparked the yearlong Montgomery bus boycott by Black residents. In November 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court declared segregation on public transport unconstitutional. But, unable to find employment, Ms. Parks and her husband moved to Detroit.

Deepen your worldview

with Monitor Highlights.

Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads.

Through their trials, both women drew on a higher faith. “I believe that all through these dark and silent years, God has been using my life,” Ms. Keller said.

As for Ms. Parks, “God did away with all my fear,” she wrote in 1995. “I am thankful to him every day that he gave me the strength not to move.”