Jackson Home: The House by the Side of the Road

In 1958, Dr. Sullivan Jackson and his new wife Richie Jean Sherrod moved to 1416 Lapsley Avenue in Selma, Alabama. Here, they started their family. The home would also serve as a safe haven for family friend Martin Luther King, Jr., when he visited the city. The planning for the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery marches took place in this house, as the Jacksons opened their doors to King and other leaders of the civil rights movement.

The Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1870, had extended the right to vote to all men regardless of race. In 1902, Thomas Knight Richardson — Richie Jean's grandfather — registered to vote. However, white segregationists often used state laws, intentional hurdles, and outright intimidation to prevent Black Americans from exercising this right. Protections for voting rights were a focus of the Selma campaign.

The 1957 Civil Rights Act created the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to investigate voter discrimination. In December 1958, Dr. Sullivan Jackson testified before the commission, discussing discrimination in Selma, Alabama. In the early 1960s, Selma would become the center of the struggle for voting rights, culminating in the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Richie Jean frequently had to feed large groups of people -- be it visitors who came to talk with King while he was at the house, leaders who stayed there to plan the marches, or politicians invited for formal meetings. For one meeting where forty congressmen were invited, she brought out her best china and silverware and sourced more from the other women in the family. She wanted to ensure the presentation matched the magnitude of the moment.

Richie Jean took great pride in her cooking. Despite having a small kitchen with only a four-top range, she produced large quantities of delicious food, at all hours of the day and night. She maintained a lifelong practice of making homemade biscuits for breakfast — a tradition she only broke on the morning of one of the Selma marches, when there were simply too many people in the house. Prepared breakfast rolls would have to do

Music was an important part of life for the Jackson family. Richie Jean Sherrod had originally met Coretta Scott — King's future wife — through piano lessons. Sullivan Jackson played tenor saxophone before becoming a dentist, touring with his band on the Chitlin' Circuit — a network of venues that would book Black performers. Even after he stopped touring, Sullivan occasionally playing for those who came by the house.

The Jackson home was home to a mother, father, and a child. Jawana Jackson was born in July 1960, and she filled the house with joy and laughter as only a child can. When civil rights leaders came to strategize in 1964 and 1965, Jawana was there. It was her home too.  Jawana's parents decorated her bedroom with these plaques of praying children, along with others depicting nursery rhymes.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., often stayed with the Jacksons while in Selma — the Kings and the Jacksons had known each other for years before the Selma movement began. Jawana, the Jacksons' only child, had a special relationship with Dr. King. To Jawana, the civil rights leader was Uncle Martin.

The Jacksons placed great emphasis on education. Like her mother before her, Richie Jean trained as a teacher. When daughter Jawana was little, Richie Jean made sure that she had access to books and educational toys. When Jawana was old enough to go to school, Richie Jean embarked on a teaching career that lasted into the 1990s. She was particularly passionate about social studies and giving her students a sense of their place in the wider world.

Dr. King visited with the Jackson family often between 1958 and 1965. The Jacksons made King feel comfortable when he visited — as they did for all their guests. King wore these pajamas when he stayed with the Jacksons. At ease in the home, King sometimes held bedside meetings while still dressed in these pajamas.

While in the Jackson home, Dr. King and his lieutenants discussed upcoming events and what needed to be shared with people at these meetings.  King would sit at this desk and outline his speech, working out what needed to be said. Here, he composed his thoughts on paper, which were then committed to memory — he had little use for paper after this.

The house by the side of the road became a safe haven not only for Dr. Martin Luther King but also for other Civil Rights leaders. Ralph Abernathy and his wife, Juanita, had known the Jacksons for some time before Ralph became a founding member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Richie Jean received this letter from Ralph, praising the "fine manner in which [she cared] for our staff."

James Forman, a leader with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), also met with Dr. King and other civil rights leaders at the Jackson home. Richie Jean remembered him as a thoughtful and intense man. Richie Jean remembered that Forman often ate oranges and deposited the peels throughout the house. He also smoked a pipe. He left this pipe, which Richie Jean kept.

The dining room table was not only a place to eat meals. The table became a conference room for civil rights leaders to strategize next steps to secure voting rights, a waiting room for government officials eager to meet with Dr. King, and a friendly gathering space for two Nobel Peace Prize winners to dine and dream of a better society.

Discussions took place in other areas of the house, as well. One meeting took place in Jawana's bedroom, where Dr. King often slept during his visits. One day, King, still in his pajamas, and seven or eight civil rights leaders met to strategize; some sat on the bed while others sat on the floor. At some point, the bed gave way, collapsing to the floor. The meeting devolved into laughter. The bed survived with repairs supported by these bricks.

On March 15, 1965, Dr. King and several of his lieutenants gathered in the living room of the Jackson home. From this chair, King watched President Lyndon B. Johnson's televised speech declaring that there would be federal protections for Black voters across the country. That support would coalesce into the Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed into law by Johnson on August 6, 1965.

After Sullivan's death in 2004, Richie Jean set to work recording the history of "the house by the side of the road" — a description taken from her favorite poem, written by Sam Walter Foss. Richie Jean's book, first published in 2011, related her memories of that important time in Selma. Her diligent work and distinctive voice helped preserve the house's legacy and told the very human story behind a crucial moment in American history.