Deserted dwelling of lesser-known civil rights hero named one in all US’ “Most Endangered Historic Websites”

The house is small, shabby, boarded up, and surrounded by tall grass. A blue tarpaulin covers the roof. The wooden facade is weathered gray from the elements, there are only a few paint splinters left.

This week, this home at 9308 Woodlawn, near Detroit City Airport, was named one of the “11 Most Endangered Historic Sites” in the United States by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The reason? It was the home of Sarah Elizabeth Ray – a black woman whom conservation supporters say should be as famous as Rosa Parks.

Here you can see a virtual 3D tour of the house

Ray was a recent graduate of the Secretariat School in 1945 when she and her classmates boarded the SS Columbia for a celebratory cruise on the Detroit River. Once on board, Ray was assigned by the popular passenger steamer that made trips to Bob-Lo Island.

She filed a complaint with the Detroit NAACP Chapter, and in 1948 the US Supreme Court upheld her right to be on the boat. The case helped pave the way for future civil rights advances and incorporate a beloved island amusement park.

Ray later married a Jewish labor activist named Rafael Haskell and changed her name to Lizz Haskell. After the 1967 Detroit rebellion, the couple founded the community empowerment organization Action House on the property next door.

“I only knew her as Ms. Lizz,” said William R. Walton, who from time to time helped out at the Action House. “I remember it was important to her. She took care of the children. “

Walton, a retired SMART bus driver, lives near the house and owns several lots in the neighborhood where he grows flowers and vegetables.

“I hope they will be cleaned up [the Sarah Ray house] and make it a historic site. Make it something the children can look up to as someone in their own neighborhood did. “

The critically endangered label offers no protection or money to maintain, but the project’s supporters hope it will attract attention and resources.

“You don’t see it when you look at it, but in this house, this crumbling building, there are actually… hundreds of documents from Sarah Elizabeth Ray’s life. There are pictures, there are letters with her handwriting, ”says Aaron Schillinger, who made a short film about Ray and co-founded the Sarah Elizabeth Ray Project. “That’s one of the reasons this house is now on the list of 11 Most Vulnerable. Because these objects need to be saved. I would like to see that they belong in a museum. “

Action House provided cold lunches and cultural enrichment for neighborhood children, and connected families with social services. Ray also brought the town’s mobile pool and library to the neighborhood, handing out Thanksgiving turkey, and helping mothers grow, according to writer and project co-founder Desiree Cooper.

Check out a teaser for the short film Aaron Shillinger made about Ray:

On the day I visited the house, a car pulled up to the curb with the wheels on the driver’s side, with Antonio Hinton at the wheel.

“The door was right there,” Hinton recalled, pointing to a space in the now vacant lot next to Ray’s house. “In the 1970s we stood in line at this door to get cold lunches. Oh, I remember going to Metropolitan Beach with the Action House. I remember going to Bob-Lo with the Action House. I remember going to the Tiger Stadium in the Action House! “

I ask Hinton what he knew about Ray’s legacy as a civil rights activist.

“Nobody our age never knew what Lizz really stood for,” Hinton said, adding that he heard about Ray’s activism about nine months ago when a friend shared an article with him. I ask him how he thinks back to his time at Action House today, knowing full well that it was a civil rights activist who handed out lunches and took him on excursions.

“I was mad at myself! Lizz did all of this for us? When I read about it … it gave me a shiver. “