Politics / Civil rights & activism
Barbara-Rose Collins
1939–2021 · politician, activist
Detroit-born single mother turned activist who rose from the school board and City Council to become the first Black woman from Michigan elected to Congress (1991–1997).
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 82- Birth name
- Barbara Rose Richardson
- Detroit years
- 1939–2021
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Barbara-Rose Richardson was born in Detroit in 1939, the daughter of a Ford worker, and attended Cass Technical High School and Wayne State University. Divorced young and raising children alone, she worked several jobs and relied for a time on public assistance before spending nine years as business manager of Wayne State's physics department. A late-1960s speech by Stokely Carmichael at the Shrine of the Black Madonna drew her into activism, and the church's pastor, Albert Cleage, backed her political career. She sat on the Detroit school board from 1971 to 1973, in the Michigan House from 1975 to 1981, and on the Detroit City Council from 1982 to 1991. After losing a 1988 primary to George Crockett, she won his seat in 1990, becoming the first Black woman from Michigan in Congress. An ethics inquiry and a 1996 primary loss to Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick ended her House career. She died of COVID-19 in Detroit in 2021.
Highlights
- First Black woman from Michigan elected to Congress (1990)
- U.S. representative from Detroit, 1991–1997
- Detroit City Council member, 1982–1991
- Michigan state representative, 1975–1981
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Related place · late 1960s–1970s
Shrine of the Black Madonna
Albert Cleage's Black nationalist church, where a Stokely Carmichael speech inspired her activism and whose pastor backed her first campaigns.
Studied here · 1950s
Cass Technical High School
Detroit's selective public high school, which she attended.