Statue of Helen Keller Installed in U.S. Capitol

WASHINGTON -- For the first time in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, there's a tribute to a child and a person with a disability.

Alabama updated its historical presence in the U.S. Capitol, swapping out a statue of a rather unknown former congressman for a new bronze likeness of Helen Keller.

The Keller statute is nestled among remembrances of former presidents and the bust of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King.

"Placing this statue in the Capitol will inspire countless children, [teaching them that] with faith and courage, no obstacle is impossible to overcome," Alabama Gov. Bob Riley said in his remarks at Wednesday's unveiling ceremony for her statue.

Each state has two statues in the Capitol as part of the Capitol collection, which was permanent until 2000, when Congress allowed for changes.

The Keller statue, unveiled Wednesday morning, is the first in the National Statuary Hall Collection depicting a person with a disability and the only one of a child. Showing Keller as a 7-year-old girl, it replaces one of Jabez Curry, a former Confederate officer, educator, ambassador and preacher who was once well known for advocating for free public education.

The statue of Curry, who died in 1903, will be moved to Samford University in Birmingham.

"This is not to diminish Mr. Curry at all, but I think Helen Keller probably is as recognizable nationally and internationally as anyone who has been born and raised in Alabama," said Riley, a former congressman who came up with the idea for the change.

Keller went deaf and blind as a 19-month-old baby after contracting an illness. By age 7, she had invented more than 60 signs to communicate with her family. But once a teacher from the Perkins Institute for the Blind named Anne Sullivan arrived in 1887, she began to learn a new system, that of finger spelling in a person's hand.

The bronze statue is designed by Edward Hlavka and captures the moment at the family water pump where Helen realizes that Sullivan is spelling W-A-T-E-R into the palm of her hand, while running cool water over her other hand, thereby symbolizing the idea of "water."

The bronze, which cost about $325,000 and was paid with private donations raised by the state, will be placed in the new Capitol Visitor Center.

Nearly 40 of Keller's descendants attended the ceremony to unveil her statue which was attended by House and Senate leaders.

"This statue reminds us that people must be remembered for what they can do, not what they cannot," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Keller was a college graduate, finishing Radcliffe at the age of 24 in 1904. She went on to become a world-famous speaker and author. She died in 1968.

In addition to advocating for people with disabilities, she was a suffragette, a pacifist, a radical socialist, a birth control supporter and in 1920, she helped to found the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU.) She also counted Charlie Chaplin and Mark Twain among her friends.

At Wednesday's ceremony, students from the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind also treated the packed crowd to God bless America and America the Beautiful. It was clear during the ceremony - just how much the assembled members of the deaf and blind communities love and respect the legacy of Helen Keller.

"A colleague of mine asked me, ' Wasn't it supposed to rain this morning?,' said Carl Augusto, President and CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind, " I replied that a group of us beseeched Helen Keller [to bring us a dry day.]"

FOX News' Jessica Weinstein and The Associated Press contributed to this report.