A key piece of civil rights history has been permanently relocated to Michigan where its powerful story will be preserved and shared. The Henry Ford in Dearborn has acquired the Jackson Home – the former Selma, Alabama home of Dr. And Mrs. Sullivan Jackson – for its Greenfield Village outdoor museum.

The home was a safe haven and planning site for the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery marches. During the height of the fight for voting rights, civil rights leaders including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gathered in the Jacksons’ home to organize and strategize. That’s also where Dr. King watched President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “We Shall Overcome” speech – the announcement that would lead to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The house, preserved with some of its original furnishings, includes a maple dining table where influential civil rights leaders met, the upholstered armchair where Dr. King watched President Johnson’s address, and the bedroom where Dr. King stayed during his time in Selma.  

The Henry Ford acquired the home in 2023 after Jawana Jackson, the daughter of Dr. And Mrs. Jackson and the home’s sole owner, requested the museum relocate it and ensure its legacy. The house and its contents were transported 1,060 miles from Alabama to Michigan, and in 2024 the home was installed in the Porches & Parlors district of Greenfield Village

Host Stephen Henderson talks with The Henry Ford President & Ceo Patricia Mooradian and Amber Mitchell, curator of Black History, about the home and its civil rights history. Plus, they share what visitors can expect to see when the exhibit opens in 2026.