Historic home where Selma march was planned now resides in Henry Ford's Greenfield Village
The grounds of the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation are now home to one of the country's most pivotal residences in civil rights history.
The historic Selma to Montgomery, Alabama marches for voting rights in 1965 trace to a critical but often overlooked piece of history: The Jackson Home.
The modest Selma residence, once the home of Dr. Sullivan Jackson and Mrs. Richie Jean Sherrod Jackson, played a pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement, serving as a sanctuary and strategic hub for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil rights leaders as they planned the marches that ultimately changed America.
From the Jacksons' living room, Dr. King and others watched President Lyndon Baines Johnson's 'We Shall Overcome' speech as the nation's highest office publicly backed voting rights. A now-iconic photo of Dr. King inside the Jackson Home, published in LIFE magazine, captures this rare and powerful moment – one that underscores the significance of this space in shaping the movement.
It was in this very home where leaders planned the final, successful Selma to Montgomery march, which began on March 21 and concluded on March 25 with thousands of courageous marchers. By August, the movement's sacrifices led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Detroit, home to many who marched in 1965, is now the new resting place of the Jackson Home, It will be permanently housed in Greenfield Village at The Henry Ford, ensuring its legacy is preserved for generations to come.
More: Detroit man was on phone with Martin Luther King Jr.'s wife during assassination
'All of this work is basically standing on the shoulders of decades of activism by the local community there in Selma, as well as other activists who had come into Selma in the last few years,' said Amber Mitchell, curator of Black history at The Henry Ford. 'For most people, what they will remember about the voting rights movement, in particular, are the events of Bloody Sunday. The very first attempt at the Selma to Montgomery march was on March 7, 1965, and there were three attempts, with this anniversary, March 21 through the 25th being the successful march that ended up opening the door for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. We're celebrating the 60th anniversary this year.
'And so, here at The Henry Ford, we are in the process of preserving our first major home acquisition in the last 40 years, the Dr. Sullivan and Richie Jackson home, the Selma home that Dr. King and his lieutenants from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference stayed in during this period of time.'
The Jacksons' only daughter, Jawana Jackson, had been operating the family home as a museum in Selma since her mother's passing in 2014 and approached The Henry Ford.
'She was looking for a place to steward her family story,' said Mitchell, 'mainly to be able to keep all these items and artifacts that were in the home, as well as a place that would make sure the home would be able to be seen by large amounts of people, but also be protected and maintained in perpetuity. So, after much deliberation, research, engagement, The Henry Ford decided to go ahead and acquire this home.
'Like I mentioned, it's been 40 years since the last time we moved a house into Greenfield Village, and so we didn't want to take this lightly. We've been engaging experts across the country to assist us in this process. The home was moved in late 2023 and is currently on its brand-new foundation out in the village. Over the course of this next year, we are continuing to restore the home to its 1965 façade and prepare it for opening in the summer of 2026.'
Mitchell said moving the house was an arduous task, to put it mildly.
'It's a long way – actually, it's between 900 and 1,000 miles, depending on which way you drive it,' she said. 'With very purposeful care, working with all kinds of historic preservation experts, we essentially removed all the artifacts and items from the home, brought those things up, essentially shored (the house) up on the inside to make sure that the home would not move. Removed the roof, removed the porch, and then, lastly, we cut it in half. So the house was moved up in two separate halves – about a 2,000 sq. ft. home – and both halves were then basically enveloped with waterproof casing and driven up.
'It was a really cool process, but most importantly, they kept the house's integrity.'
The home's exterior can currently be viewed while touring Greenfield Village as its work process continues, and photos can be viewed at thehenryford.org. For the remainder of the year, the museum itself will display 'We Shall Overcome: 60 Years of the Voting Rights Act,' an exhibition featuring the Jackson home project and a number of its artifacts.
'If you are a voter,' said Mitchell, 'the Voting Rights Act and the story of voting in the United States – especially as African Americans – is extremely important, extremely relevant. At the same time, Selma and this area of Alabama have a new connection to Detroit in that many people who made that Great Migration trek to come work in the factories and other facilities here in the Detroit area were coming from Selma, Dallas County, Lowndes County, Alabama. So these are folks who have not only a direct connection back to the area, they also are often related to people who were engaged with the movement.
'Then, just beyond that, this is a story that couldn't be more relevant today, couldn't be more relevant to our collective understanding of American citizenship. I really hope that our visitors and folks across the metro Detroit area and beyond get really excited about this. Think about a community member who opened up their doors to the world and helped transform the way you and I live here today and so many of these images that continue to live in the American mind. We're excited to be able to bring some of those things to life in this exhibit.'
For information, visit thehenryford.org.
Contact Free Press arts and culture reporter Duante Beddingfield at dbeddingfield@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Historic home where Selma march was planned resides in metro Detroit
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