- Elements of that Voting Rights Act were drafted at the dining room table in this house, right?

Conversations between Dr.

King and President Lyndon B. Johnson happen all throughout this home, but especially in that back bedroom.

- [Reporter] If these walls could talk.

- Once they walk into the home, which is restored to its 1965 facade inside and out, people will experience the home as it looked in March of 1965.

So March 15th, 1965 is the day of two major events.

One, it is the funeral of Reverend James Reeb, who is the second martyr of the Selma movement.

Dr.

King delivers his eulogy earlier that morning, and then that evening, they all listened to President LBJ deliver his We Shall Overcome speech on the television set that people will be able to hear when they come into this home.

And the photos that we have that really bring this story to life are of everyone in that room watching that, that delivery.

- [Reporter] The Jackson home looks like a house that could very well still dot the streets of America today, but this quiet, unassuming house played an extraordinary role in the Civil Rights Movement because of one ordinary family who lived there.

- I think what's really core to this story is that the Jacksons were everyday people.

Dr.

Jackson was a dentist.

He's a World War II veteran.

He lands at the beaches of Normandy in June of 1944, and is told that you do not have the right to vote despite going overseas to fight for democracy in some other place.

So that doesn't sit well with him.

- [Reporter] The right to vote wasn't a guarantee despite the Reconstruction Amendments added to the US Constitution between 1865 and 1870.

They abolished slavery, defined citizenship and equal protection under the law, and protected voting rights regardless of race.

- Prior to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, African Americans had very little access to the right to vote in the United States.

On paper, we had the right to vote via the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, but of course, in practice, that looks different based off of time and place, especially in the former Confederate states across the South, but definitely up North as well.

Access to the vote was not just a Southern problem.

By this point, there was no longer any sort of negotiations happening around who gets the right to vote in the United States.

African Americans at that point, or at least these activists had said, "Enough is enough and we're ready to push forward in a deeper, deeper way."

Throughout the course of January to June of 1965, tons of people came through this home, all kinds of both well-known folks like Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr., future Congressman John Lewis.

- [Reporter] It's important to note the relationships formed between these important historical figures would not have happened without strong women friendships bringing everyone to the table, including Dr.

Jackson's wife, Richie Jean.

- His wife, Richie Jean, who is also a native of Selma, she is born into a very well-connected family whose connections are really the reason why Dr.

King is in this home and why they have a long-term friendship.

It's her childhood friendship with Coretta Scott, later King, who is born in Marion, Alabama, which is about 30 minutes away from Selma.

It is her relationship with a future Reverend Ralph Abernathy, who is Dr.

King's second in command at SCLC, as well as his wife, Juanita Jones Abernathy, as well as another woman named Jean Childs Young, the wife of a future ambassador Andy Young, who are all organizers as part of SELC.

It's these friendships between these women who are very well connected both here and nationally throughout the United States that build a link in a different kind of way for movement making.

- [Reporter] The Jackson home transports you back in time, while also feeling like the present day.

It is a testament to what can be accomplished by everyday people working together for the greater good of a nation.

- I think we're at an interesting moment where people are seeing the challenges that are being laid at the feet of complex American stories as a way to look deeper into who we are.

And I think by learning who we are, we learn who we can be.