BLAC Event: Virtual Discussion on Sarah E. Ray, ‘Detroit’s other Rosa Parks’

In 1945, 24-year-old Black secretary Sarah Elizabeth Ray is barred passage on the Bob-Lo boat, traveling from Detroit to the amusement park on Bois Blanc Island. The NAACP and Thurgood Marshall take up the case against the Bob-Lo Excursion Co. setting a precedent for the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. 

On Tuesday, March 30, writer and activist Desiree Cooper, and filmmaker Aaron Schillinger joined BLAC Detroit Senior Editor Paris Giles for a screening of their short four-minute film, Sarah Elizabeth Ray: Detroit’s Other Rosa Parks, followed by a discussion. During the virtual event, guests were able to see the film, learn the history and find out how Cooper and Schillinger plan to continue telling Sarah Elizabeth Ray’s story.

Watch the film and full discussion below: