MLK Jr. changed the world. For one Milton woman, he was simply Uncle Martin.

Jawana Jackson of Milton holds dear the memories of her mother's stories, but none more so than those of the six months Martin Luther King Jr. stayed with her family in Selma, Alabama.

Jackson’s parents, Dr. Sullivan Jackson and Richie Jean Sherrod Jackson, were a newlywed couple in the 1950s in Selma when a young King lived in Montgomery 50 miles away.

Jawana’s cousin, Leola Hudson Whitted, was an influential member of Dexter Avenue Memorial Baptist Church (later changed in 1978 to Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church), where King served his first full-time pastorship. Whitted wanted the two newlywed couples to meet each other.

Richie Jean and Coretta Scott King soon realized they had met as girls in Selma when they both took music lessons from Richie Jean's aunt, Ethel Dinkins.

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The couple stayed in touch and the Jacksons watched from afar all of the activities King was involved in such as the Montgomery bus boycotts. Eventually her father received a phone call from King asking to use their home as the headquarters for their upcoming march from Selma to Montgomery to raise awareness of the difficulties of Black voters.

Jackson came home and told his wife about the conversation. It was when they looked in on their daughter in her room that they knew how they must respond. Sullivan Jackson called King and said, “Martin, Jawana is 4, and she and children in this country and all around the world, deserve a better, a more even, a more just society. Whatever we can do to support you, we’re here.”

For six months, King, Ralph Abernathy and other prominent leaders stayed in her family home as they prepared for one of the most pivotal moments in the Civil Rights Movement. At one point there were two Nobel Peace Prize winners staying in their home when Ralph Bunche, the United Nations mediator in the Palestine conflict, stayed with the family after he heard they were planning a march. The visit was set up by Bunche’s daughter and Richie Jean who were best friends in high school.

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Heady discussions were had, but at 4 years old, it is the softer moments that left a lifelong impression on young Jawana.

“A house that had a mother and a father and a little girl, all of a sudden the world came to us because of him,” Jawana said. “I wish I had been just a little older to understand what was going on right around me but the memories that I have now are priceless. And I have committed myself to preserving those memories and that history.”

For instance, King would often read bedtime stories to Jawana. One day when her mother couldn’t find her, she went to King’s room. Gingerly opening the door, Richie Jean saw King slumped in his chair, book in hand, knocked out by the cough syrup her father gave to him when he was feeling sick. On his lap was 4-year-old Jawana also asleep.

Jawana particularly remembers how the civil rights leaders embraced her as she often would tug on someone's shirt for attention. Her mother would try to pick her up and move her to another room where there was cookies and mudpies, but Jawana wanted to be part of the action.

Once when she asked King why the sky was blue and the ground was brown, King spent 45 minutes answering her question while her mother listened on wishing she had a tape recorder.

Jawana's time spent in that house during those six months was instrumental in her life, and the principles that her parents and King instilled into her young has stayed with her even today. The home was more than where King and his compatriots slept, it was a front row seat to witness the fight for freedom, justice and democracy for all people.

Richie Jean wrote a book about the experience called,” The House by the Side of the Road: The Selma Civil Rights Movement.”

Jawana’s father died in 2003. When her mother passed away in 2013, Jawana made sure to preserve the history and memories of the house built in 1912 that had been in their family for over 100 years.

The home at 1416 Lapley St. became The Sullivan and Richie Jean Sherrod Jackson Foundation and Museum and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage. In the past month, the house was acquired and it will be preserved at Greenfield Village at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation.

Communicating the Dr. King Way

Jawana will share her stories of the six months King and other prominent leaders stayed in her family home at a event called “Communicating the Dr. King Way” at Pensacola Public Library with Christian Wagley, coastal organizer for Florida-Alabama for Healthy Gulf, and Mike Will, Pensacola State College Professor of English.

Wagley met Jawana when she reached out about her concerns with water quality in the Blackwater Bay after he held a press conference with other conservation groups last August related to pollution issues in the local bays.

When Wagley learned her story he knew he had to share her family's incredible story with others in Pensacola.

“It's important to come and meet Jawana and listen to Jawana because she is part of the last generation of people among us who knew Dr. King at that personal level and can share these direct accounts and direct stories of knowing him,” Wagley said. “Those folks who have that memory are not going to be around for too much longer and what better way to learn and to hear from someone directly who knew Dr. King, and so she is just a treasure in our community to be celebrated.”

Wagley, a lifelong environmental and community advocate, has always considered King to be the best communicator he has ever heard. From time to time he rereads a book of King’s speeches, which inspires him to effectively communicate with others through stories because storytelling that grips human emotions can cause people to act.

At the event, in addition to Jawana sharing her story, audience members will listen to King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, which will be broken down by a professor to better structure our oral communication, and fight for environmental issues.

Jackson is not sure if she will write her own book since her mother already did. Her job was to preserve the house and now that she did her promise to her parents has been fulfilled.

“I could not have picked better parents. Sullivan and Richard Jean Sherrod Jackson were incredible individuals and I wish they were here by my side. I owe them my life in so many ways,” Jawana said. “The last thing I said to my mother's casket before Jim (Jawana's husband) took me away was 'I promise, I promise mom I will do my very best to preserve what you and daddy left me.' ”

Want to go?

What: Communicating the Dr. King Way

Where: Pensacola Public Library, 239 N. Spring St.

When: 5:30 pm May 9

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Martin Luther King Jr. legacy told by Richie Jean Jackson daughter