DEARBORN, Mich. (WXYZ) — Selma, Alabama, became the center for the movement for voting rights. Now, a piece of that history is at the Henry Ford Museum and the curators have created an exhibit to preview it this weekend.
The Jackson Home of Dr. Sullivan Jackson and Mrs. Richie Jean Sherrod Jackson began its 800-plus mile journey from Selma to Michigan in August to be permanently housed at the Henry Ford.
While curators work on constructing the house to showcase to the public in Greenfield Village in 2026, they’re sharing a small number of artifacts in the Jackson Home Spotlight, a pop-up exhibit that launches Saturday.
"I think probably the most famous that people will recognize is this set of pajamas right here, which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wore while helping to plan the march from Selma to Montgomery,” said Heather Bruegl, curator of Political and Civic Engagement.
In the "We Shall Overcome" exhibit, visitors will get a preview of the more than 100-year-old time capsule documenting one of the most momentous movements in U.S history: the fight for voting rights.
"All the things inside of it were packed up and brought up here, and the home itself was essentially shored up, cut in half as one big structure and taken up here in two halves,” said Amber Mitchell, curator of Black History at the Henry Ford. “We're doing a lot of interesting historical detective work and peeling back the layers of this home."
The exhibit shows a part of history that some may not know about.
"I think what happens is a lot of people, we hear about the big names, we hear about MLK or John Lewis, but we don't hear about the families like the Jackson family who were on the ground opening their home to people risking their own lives to fight for voting rights. And it's important that their story is uplifted because it's ordinary people like you and I who are helping making this movement happen,” Bruegl said.
Some of the pieces featured include the coffee carafe and cup used to serve movement leaders, legal documents, rare campaign materials and a voting machine used to train Black voters.
“As people come through, we would love for folks to get a better understanding of the impact the Voting Right Act has had on their lives. It’s impacted everybody,” Mitchell said.
