DETROIT (WXYZ) — A Detroit civil rights pioneer who broke down barriers will now be the inspiration for a museum at the site of her old home.
The Detroit Land Bank approved the sale Tuesday of activist Sarah Elizabeth Ray’s former home to a Detroit businesswoman.
The home on Detroit’s east side can now one day become a lasting tribute to its inspiring owner in the form of a museum for civil rights.
“I think what Sarah Elizabeth Ray would have wanted would be for this to be a place for education,” Aaron Schillinger with the Sarah E. Ray Project said.
A decade before all of America learned the story of Rosa Parks, in 1945, civil rights icon Ray fought her own battle for equality.
“After she forced the integration of Boblo in 1948, she created a nonprofit center right here behind us,” Schillinger told 7 Action News.
The civil rights pioneer, an African American secretary, was just 24 years old when she was refused a seat on the segregated Boblo boat, SS Columbia.
Like Parks, Ray fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, represented by famed NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall. Ray won her case and later created the Action House community center to empower Detroit youth. There’s now an effort to preserve her home on Woodlawn Avenue.
“We knew it was special. We knew we didn’t want to just put it into a regular sales pipeline,” said Ellie Schneider, project manager with the Detroit Land Bank. “The most important thing to us is that Sarah’s legacy not be forgotten — both her as an individual but also the work she did through the Action House.”
The Detroit Land Bank agreed to sell it to businesswoman Shannon Steel for $1 for it to be turned into a museum.
“It means everything. Because of women like that, that’s the reason I have some of the opportunities I have now,” Steel said.
Steel told us this type of project is also meant to lift up the entire neighborhood, with a sense of pride in its history.
“It’ll be full of her story, pictures of her. I’m working with another foundation that’s been actively working on her story. So, I plan on partnering with them and other people and museums,” Steel said. “But I do have a vision of what I want to do with the house and turning it into a museum.”
