The House by the Side of the Road: The Selma Civil Rights Movement

by Richie Jean Sherrod Jackson

On Sunday, March 7, 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. and six hundred followers set out on foot from Selma, Alabama, bound for Montgomery to demand greater voting rights for African Americans. As they crossed the city’s Edmund Pettus Bridge, state and local policemen savagely set on the marchers with tear gas and billy clubs, an event now known as “Bloody Sunday” that would become one of the most iconic in American history.
 
King’s informal headquarters in Selma was the home of Dr. Sullivan and Richie Jean Sherrod Jackson and their young daughter, Jawana. The House by the Side of the Road is Richie Jean’s firsthand account of the private meetings King and his lieutenants, including Ralph David Abernathy and John Lewis, held in the haven of the Jackson home.
 
Sullivan Jackson was an African American dentist in Selma and a prominent supporter of the civil rights movement. Richie Jean was a close childhood friend of King’s wife, Coretta Scott King, a native of nearby Marion, Alabama. Richie Jean’s fascinating account narrates how, in the fraught months of 1965 that preceded the Voting Rights March, King and his inner circle held planning sessions and met with Assistant Attorney General John Doar to negotiate strategies for the event.
 
Just eight days after Bloody Sunday, President Lyndon Johnson made a televised addressed to a joint session of Congress on Monday, March 15. Jackson relates the intimate scene of King and his lieutenants watching as Johnson called the nation to dedicate itself to equal rights for all and ending his address with the “We shall overcome.” Five months later, Congress passed the 1965 Voting Rights Act on August 6.
 
The major motion picture Selma now commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. In it, Niecy Nash and Kent Faulcon star as Sullivan and Richie Jean Jackson among a cast including Oprah Winfrey, Tom Wilkinson, and Cuba Gooding Jr. A gripping primary source, The House by the Side of the Road illuminates the private story whose public outcomes electrified the world and changed the course of American history.

Genres: History, Audiobook, Nonfiction

176 pages, Hardcover

First published March 2, 2011

Reviews

[Daena · Rating 4 out of 5]

So glad my book club was reading this just in time for the house to open this year in our village.

History is a living thing and we are living in it just as the Jacksons did. Mrs. Jackson’s stories really grounded the legendary and almost mythical air that surrounded a man like MLK and the Civil Rights movement.

It’s so easy to think that it was so long ago when it wasn’t. We are always seeing the world through change. It was nice to hear from her needing to slow down and just do laundry because that was what was necessary to keep going, even when the world felt like it was constant waves of bad news.

When she could she would participate actively, but her existence and her work keeping the house on its foundations with food, comfort and love was enough too. To make sure she had a safe space for everyone even when it was overwhelming. She had a community and people to ask for help even when it was a lot. How important it is to remember to be a part of a community these days.

[Teressa · Rating 5 out of 5]

"An Amazing Glimpse Into A House That Still Stands"
To sum up The House by the Side of the Road in just three words is very difficult. My three words would be sincere, important, and beautiful. There were so many memorable moments in this book. I like when she says "neighbor means ALL of God's children." I also like where she says that the dictionary defines friend as: one attached to another by affection or esteem. This is such a wonderful book written by Richie Jean Sherrod Jackson. I love the way she welcomed all the people into her home as friends and neighbors. A must read. Stephanie King did an outstanding performance narrating this book. The most moving moment in this book was the night of April 4,1968 when the Sullivans received the phone call that Martin had been shot in Memphis.

[Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good back story to the Civil Rights Movement. If you have read a lot else about the movement, this gives a different view of it from behind the scenes.
Also available as an audiobook thru Audible, though that edition not listed here on Goodreads.

[Valerie Reid · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an autobiography / memoir told by Richie Jean Sherrod Jackson, the wife of the dentist Dr. Sullivan Jackson. It was their home in Selma, Alabama, "The Jackson Home," that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. used as his headquarters to rally supporters for the Voting Rights Act and the Selma Civil Rights Movement. Their daughter, Jawana, was just five years old at the time, and loved when 'Uncle Martin' came to visit.

Greenfield Village in Dearborn (part of The Henry Ford) recently acquired The Jackson Home and had it moved from Selma to Dearborn, Michigan. It is opening to the public this weekend (June 12-14, 2026) with a festive Block Party. We had the good fortune of touring the house last month and the experience was quite moving. The house is preserved just as it was in 1965 with as many original furnishings and accessories as possible. The Henry Ford staff worked tirelessly to find additional items which needed to be added to those original items.

Here is a 48-minute documentary, created by our local NBC affiliate WDIV, which was broadcast earlier this year. The Jackson daughter, Jawana Jackson, is now 65 years old and is featured in the video talking about Dr. King and the role that her house played in making history. One of the fascinating things in this video is how they had to cut the house in two in order to transport it from Selma to Dearborn on two different trucks, and then reassemble it once it arrived in Greenfield Village!
https://www.clickondetroit.com/video/...

This is an incredible book telling the story of the Selma Civil Rights Movement. Richie Jean Sherrod Jackson is a wonderful storyteller, and reading the book I felt like she was my grandmother, sitting in a rocking chair with me at her feet on the carpet while she was telling me the tales of her life and all the important people who came to The House by the Side of the Road. A very compelling memoir; very highly recommended!

Read more of my reviews at https://thegoodreader13.blogspot.com/.

[Tammy Travis-Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful oral history of the Selma Civil Rights Movement and the role Ms. Jackson, her family and home played in that movement. Was especially interested in reading the book as the House by the Side of the Road has just been moved to Greenfield Village in Dearborn Michigan. If only the walls could talk we be very apropos in this case. This book is really a must read for anyone interested in the Civil Rights movement.

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I enjoyed the story behind the Jackson home, that has now moved to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, and enjoyed touring the house myself, the book was only okay. It just wasn’t terribly well written, and I felt like “the house by the side of the road” was overused and jammed down my throat. Make no mistake, it is a fascinating story. I just wish it could’ve been told better.

[Lisa Hirsch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short history of the Selma Civil Rights Movement from the woman who hosted Martin Luther King, Jr. during that time. And now the Jackson House has been moved to Michigan's Greenfield Village to preserve this history. Definitely worth a visit and this book is worth the read.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book. It is especially timely since this house was recently moved to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan! Tours of the house begin this summer. It is helpful to know more about its interesting background.

[Val Crofts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed learning about the house central to the Voting Rights in Selma. Read this before visiting the house at Greenfield Village. The power of radical hospitality.

[Katie Hildreth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful remembrance of the movement. I learned a lot while I felt like she was telling a story.

[Larrin Robertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd say this is a must-read for anyone with an interest in the Selma, AL portion of the Civil Rights Movement. This book is an insider account, provided by the woman who (along with her husband) owned the house where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his team of "freedom fighters" met, planned, ate (A LOT!), slept, laughed, and more. This book pulls back the curtain and allows for a view that most would love to witness. This house played host to M.L. King, Ralph Abernathy, Ralph Bunche, Jesse Jackson, Benjamin Mays, James Bevel...basically anybody who was somebody in the Movement during that era. President Lyndon Johnson even called the house several times.

This is a good read. It is an easy read.

[Karlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mrs. Jackson tells the story of when the bigwigs of the civil rights movement movement set up shop in her house. Her account of the endless changing of sheets, baking of biscuits, sky-high phone bills, and SCLC men sleeping in her bathtub captures the daily grind of the people who made the movement in Selma possible. Mrs. Jackson's memoir is the most complex and compellingly written memoir of the civil rights movement that I've read.

[Stephanie King · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very easy to read. It offers even more personal details about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The author's home was his headquarters for the Civil Rights Movement in Selma. What a unique perspective! I am also proud to say that I am narrating the audiobook version of this work.

[Kristine Schoen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The history of the civil rights movement, and author's role in such are incredible. However, I felt as though the author was extremely repetitive and focused on a lot of unnecessary details that took away from the story itself.

[Judyspadoni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting inside personal look at Martin Luther King and the Selma "campaign" for voting rights. An easy read.