The House by the Side of the Road

by Jackson, Richie Jean Sherrod

• ISBN13: 9780817316945
• ISBN10: 0817316949
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-03-04
• Publisher: Univ of Alabama Pr

Summary

During the 1965 Selma voting rights campaign, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. set up informal headquarters at the home of Dr. Sullivan Jackson; his wife, Richie Jean; and their young daughter, Jawana. Dr. Jackson was an African American dentist in Selma, whose profession gave him some protection from economic reprisals, and he was one of the movement#x19;s prominent local supporters. Richie Jean was a childhood friend of King#x19;s wife, Coretta Scott King, who had grown up in the nearby town of Marion, and the King, Abernathy, and Jackson families were all very close. In the dramatic and tension-filled months of 1965 that led up to the Voting rights March from Selma to Montgomery, King and other national leaders, including Ralph David Abernathy and John Lewis, held strategy sessions at the Jackson house and met with Assistant Attorney General John Doar to negotiate plans for the march. One of the most dramatic moments of that time occurred on Monday, March 15, when President Lyndon Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress. Huddled with his aides in Jackson#x19;s living room, King was watching the speech on television when the president issued his call for a national dedication to equal rights for all. When Johnson ended his speech with the words #x1C;We shall overcome,#x1D; King#x19;s lieutenant C. T. Vivian looked across the Jackson living room and saw the mark of a tear on Dr. King#x19;s cheek. Nobody in the room had ever before seen King weep. They had seen him worried or fretful, sometimes depressed, and more often they had watched him lead with humor and courage, his emotions always carefully in check. But on this night, as they sensed that the voting-rights victory was near, and as the president of the United States seemed to be adopting their cause as his own, King finally let his feelings flow. This book is a firsthand account of the behind-the-scenes activity of King and his lieutenants-a mixture of stress, tension, dedication, and the personal interaction at the movement#x19;s heart-told by Richie Jean Jackson, who carefully created a safe haven for the civil rights leaders and dealt with the innumerable demands of living in the eye of events that would forever change America.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. xi
The Blueprint of My Life and the House	p. 1
Up on the Hill	p. 8
Preparation for Life's Journey	p. 12
Choosing a Mate	p. 17
The Foundation Is Laid	p. 20
The Port in the Storm	p. 24
Martin Luther King Jr. the Man	p. 27
Storm Clouds Roll over Selma	p. 33
Hosting a Movement	p. 35
Dangerous Days	p. 39
Uncle Martin	p. 43
Shelter for the Spirit	p. 48
Our Neighborhood	p. 54
Guests in the House	p. 57
Other Voices in the House	p. 62
The Sanctuary	p. 67
Vital Staff	p. 79
Perilous Times	p. 86
Women in the Movement	p. 91
Other Support Systems	p. 95
Nobel Prize Winners in the House	p. 101
Soldiers in the Storm	p. 105
Preparing for the March	p. 109
Strategy	p. 112
The Fires Burn	p. 115
On Our Way	p. 122
No Room in the Inn	p. 125
Marching Orders	p. 128
A Concert for the Masses	p. 133
The Final Journey	p. 138
Memories and Echoes of Martin	p. 148
Selma and Area Counties	p. 153
Timeline for the Selma Voting Rights Campaign of 1965	p. 155
Cabbage Recipe	p. 162
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