THE BOBLO BOATS
Since the fire of 2018, the Ste. Claire Restoration Project is in the final stages of completing the superstructure of Ste. Claire. She is stronger than ever, and thanks to your support, she will be saved.
The SS Columbia Project continues the work to save Columbia. The hull restoration has been completed, and work to stabilize the vessel continues. It is on ongoing restoration process that will continue well into the future.
Director Aaron Schillinger and Co-writer Desiree Cooper founded the Sarah E. Ray Project to shed light on the forgotten civil rights pioneer who stood up for her rights on the Boblo Boat, paving the way for seismic change in the United States.
Seventy-five years ago the 24-year-old, African American secretary was denied a seat on the segregated Boblo boat, SS Columbia. Sarah 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, Sarah 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.
Although her story has previously been omitted from history books, due to the advocacy of the Sarah E. Ray Project, her former home was chosen by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as one of the '11 Most Endangered' Historic sites in America. Sarah was also inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame.
Aaron Schillinger inside Sarah E. Ray’s former home.
