On June 21st 1945, Sarah Elizabeth Ray, a 24-year-old African American secretary, was denied a seat on the segregated Boblo Boat, SS Columbia. Like Rosa Parks, Ray refused to back down, taking her fight for integration 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.Ray later married Rafael Haskell, a Jewish Communist and labor activist. She changed her name to Lizz Haskell and dedicated the rest of her life to community empowerment through the Action House, a community organization the couple established on Detroit’s east side.Sarah Elizabeth Ray died in near anonymity in 2006. The home where she lived still remains abandoned on Detroit’s east side. Inside, her personal photographs and letters still lie masquerading as garbage. Her house needs saving and her legacy needs preserving.