Until now, a Detroit civil rights pioneer named Sarah Elizabeth Ray has been largely forgotten. 

Seventy-five years ago, a 24-year-old, African American secretary was denied a seat on the segregated Boblo boat, SS Columbia. Like Rosa Parks, she refused to back down, taking her fight for integration all the way to the United States Supreme Court.

Represented by fabled NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall, Ray won her case. Scholars argue that she paved the way for the seminal 1954 Brown v. Board of Education, which found that separate was inherently unequal.

Join 2015 Kresge Artist Fellow, Pulitzer Prize nominee, former attorney, and 2017 Michigan Notable Book author Desiree Cooper and Aaron Schillinger, the director of Boblo Boats: A Detroit Ferry Tale, to learn more about Sarah E. Ray, Detroit's Other Rosa Parks, and The Sarah E. Ray Project.

Registration is required and closes one hour before the program starts. The Zoom meeting link and password will be emailed to registered participants prior to the program.

Presented by the Howell Carnegie District Library, the League of Women Voters of Livingston County, and the Livingston Diversity Council.