The Sarah E. Ray Project

Many Detroiters fondly remember summers sailing to Boblo Island, but few remember that the amusement park and its ferries were once segregated. Even fewer know that a brave young woman, Sarah Elizabeth Ray, was “the Rosa Parks of the Bob-lo Boat.” When the 24-year-old Black secretary was removed from the segregated S.S. Columbia in 1945, her criminal complaint against the company went all the way to the Supreme Court. The 1948 ruling in her favor paved the way for the later Brown v. Board of Education case, which would overturn the longstanding "separate but equal" doctrine. Attorney, Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist and community activist Desiree Cooper and award-winning filmmaker Aaron Schillinger will screen a clip from their short film The Sarah E. Ray Project and discuss Ray's civil rights legacy.