Richie Jean Jackson

Richie Jean Sherrod Jackson (née Sherrod; August 30, 1932 – November 10, 2013), was an American author, teacher, and civil rights activist.

Early life and education Jackson was born in Mobile, Alabama, as the only child of John W. and Juanita Richardson Sherrod. She was a childhood friend of Coretta Scott King.

Civil rights activist In February 1964, Martin Luther King Jr., Southern Christian Leadership Conference staff, and members of Congress met for strategy sessions to plan the Selma to Montgomery marches in Jackson's Selma, Alabama home. After the first attempted march on March 7, 1965 (known as Bloody Sunday), Assistant U. S. Attorney General John Doar and Florida Governor LeRoy Collins, the latter of whom was there representing President Lyndon Johnson, met with King and others at Jackson's house. This led to a second attempt at a voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, and finally a third and successful attempt. It was also in Jackson's home that Martin Luther King Jr. watched Lyndon Johnson give his Voting Rights Act Address on March 15, 1965. The home was acquired by The Henry Ford, and is now, as of June 12, 2026, on permanent display in Greenfield Village.

Legacy Jackson wrote a memoir, The House by the Side of the Road: The Selma Civil Rights Movement, which was published in 2011 by The University of Alabama Press.