NMGL Spring Lecture Series | All Aboard

Thursday, May 2, 2024 | 7 p.m.

Join NMGL for the third presentation of our 2024 Spring Lecture Series presented by Impact Employment Solutions. Offered as a hybrid event, participants can choose when registering to take part in person at the museum or online via Zoom.

Desiree Cooper, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist and esteemed author, pulls back the curtain on the the often overlooked story of Sarah E. Ray, an African American woman who courageously stood up against discrimination while aboard a Boblo Boat sailing tourists from a dock in Detroit to the Boblo Island Amusement Park in Canada. The story of “Detroit’s Other Rosa Parks,” aka Ray, uncovers how one woman’s fight against racial injustice scored a win in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1948, becoming one of the many test cases that paved the way for Brown v. Board of Education (1954), and the end of legal segregation in America.

Through meticulous research and collaboration with filmmaker Aaron Schillinger, Cooper provides a comprehensive understanding of Ray’s journey and the broader implications of her legal victory. 

Cooper also highlights Ray’s remarkable milestones, such as her induction into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame and the establishment of a dedicated archive at the University of Michigan’s Bentley Historical Library. 

This lecture is free, but registration is required. Donations are always happily accepted.