Social Transformation

Rosa Parks turned a single act of defiance into a defining moment of the modern American civil rights movement.

Check out our book review of Jeanne Theoharis’ The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks--an exceptional work that offers real history beyond the myth of Parks as a tired seamstress.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a soft-spoken African American seamstress, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

On the 65th anniversary of Rosa Parks’ arrest for refusing to stand up and move to the back of a Montgomery city bus, we acknowledge the important contributions of numerous other individuals to this legacy.

The Jackson Home is pivotal as one of several key locations to the Selma Voting Rights Movement. Read more about The Henry Ford's preservation process.

In the Spring of 2023, the contents of an entire house - 9,000 everyday objects, including photographs, documents, books, and household items, were logged, packed, and shipped from Selma, Alabama to Dearborn, Michigan. That house was the Jackson Family Home, which was recently moved to its new permanent home in Greenfield Village – you can find out more about the move here!

In this interview, Jeanine Head Miller (Curator of Domestic Life), and Charles Sable (Curator of Decorative Arts) sat down with Kristen Gallerneaux (Curator and Editor-in-Chief of Digital Curation) to share their efforts to restore the interiors and furnishings of The Jackson Home. This article is part of an ongoing series focusing on the history, preservation, and restoration of the landmark Jackson Home experience, slated to open in Greenfield Village in Summer 2026.

Music is a part of the Jackson family story, from the piano lessons that first brought young Richie Jean Sherrod soon-to-be-Jackson and young Corretta Scott soon-to-be-King together to the family's music room that housed an impressive record collection. In fact, Dr. Sullivan Jackson played tenor saxophone prior to his career as a dentist serving Selma's Black community. Dr. Jackson's time as a musician in the mid-1940s to the early-1950s allowed him to participate in Black American music cultural changes.

The 1960s were a decade filled with turbulence and change. The country was beginning to come out of the fog of grief caused by the death of President John F. Kennedy, and the healing was still raw.

The trials of an enslaved black family seeking freedom are told in the pages of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. The work of fiction became a national and international best-seller when first published in 1852. In one year, 1.5 million copies were sold in Great Britain. The book advanced anti-slavery sympathies throughout Europe and made Stowe an international celebrity.

Inside this bus on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a soft-spoken African-American seamstress, refused to give up her seat to a white man, breaking existing segregation laws. The flawless character and quiet strength she exhibited successfully ignited action in others. For this, many believe Rosa Parks's act was the event that sparked the Civil Rights movement.

The Civil Rights movement of the 1960s inspired other groups of people to demand their equal rights. Members of the gay rights movement began actively voicing their opposition to discrimination in 1969 after the New York police department raided the Stonewall Inn -- a local gay bar. Riots ensued and a movement was born.

George Washington carried folding beds, tents, eating utensils, and other equipment to use while encamped on the field with his troops during the Revolutionary War. Washington likely used this bed when he traveled from his Newburgh, New York, headquarters in July 1783 -- as the war was winding down -- to tour upstate New York and the military installations located there.

In 1960, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first oral contraceptive. The "Pill," as it was called, allowed women to gain control of their reproductive system. It made family planning more predictable and helped launch the sexual revolution of the 1960s. The personal and societal effects of hormonal birth control are still surfacing today.

Penicillin heralded the advent of antibiotics during World War II. When it became commercially available in 1945, it was seen as a wonder drug. This bottle is from 1948. Some bacteria developed a resistance to penicillin, and other antibiotics were developed.

In 1984, the Apple Macintosh became the first popular personal computer to feature the now-ubiquitous mouse and "graphical user interface" desktop. Despite the Mac's relatively high price, its user-friendly features helped it demystify computing for many people without a technical bent. This computer is a Macintosh 512k, released in 1985 with increased memory.

Earth Day originated after an oil spill in January 1969 galvanized a nation-wide teach-in about the environment. Schools and communities across the United States participated on April 22, 1970. Posters like this promoted events coordinated by new organizations such as the Environmental Action Coalition.

More than 250,000 civil rights advocates showed up at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. This souvenir portfolio held a group of photo collages, each incorporating fragments of disturbing images from the movement. The artist intended these to symbolize man's inhumanity to his fellow man. Civil Rights activists hoped that they would stir people's emotions and incite action.

The 13th Amendment to the Constitution, not the Emancipation Proclamation, formally abolished slavery in the United States, settling the issue which had long plagued the nation. Congress adopted the Amendment in January 1865 and sent it to states, which ratified it in December. The word "Duplicate" at the top of this document indicates the bill had been passed by Congress but had not yet been ratified.

President Abraham Lincoln was sitting in this rocking chair during a production of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., when he was assassinated on April 14, 1865. Henry Ford purchased the chair in 1929 for the Museum, where it remains one of the most revered objects associated with the "man who saved the Union."