Barbara-Rose Collins never entered rooms quietly.

She was loud, black, and proud, firmly rooted in her city and determined to bend the arc of justice in the favor of those who looked like her.

She wasn’t a woman crafted in fancy boardrooms or carefully designed for press releases.

She was brought up the way many Detroit natives were: rough and tough – and she brought that energy with her into every chamber she entered, from City Hall to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Born in Detroit, Collins was a single mother, community activist, and public school graduate who entered politics as a calling, not a career move.

She started as an aide in state government and rose to the Detroit School Board and then the City Council, where she was known for her fierce independence and sharp tongue. 

It was a temperament that would lead to her becoming the first Black woman from Michigan to serve in the United States Congress in 1990.

In Washington, Collins was persistent, going on to champion causes many others passed over:

• Fair wages
• Housing for the poor
• Reparations for descendants of slavery
• Childcare for working mothers
• Arts and Black cultural institutions receiving more in public funding

She was not content with the status quo. 

She wanted systems to genuinely change, and she introduced one of the earliest modern bills requesting reparations decades before the idea became mainstream, elevating Black civil rights and Detroit culture on all the committees she served on…even if she was the only Black woman in the room.

Much like so many other radicals before her, Collins didn’t get away with controversy. 

Accusations of campaign finance missteps followed her in the mid-1990s, and she lost her seat in 1996.

Still, she never abandoned the city that made her.

Instead, Collins went back to the Detroit City Council – still outspoken, still loud, still proud, and still grounded in the street-level reality too many policymakers wanted to turn their backs to.

She used her voice until the very end – not for popularity, but on principle.

Barbara-Rose Collins did not get involved in politics for sport.

She wanted to confront injustice head-on.

Where there were no solutions, she created them herself.

She kicked down doors and came out with achievements.

In a city of survivors, she was among their loudest defenders.

Barbara-Rose Collins died quietly in her sleep in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Her death was largely overlooked on the world stage given everything that was going on at that time, but to Detroiters…the impact was huge.

She wasn’t a media darling.

She was a warrior.

One who proved you could build a new table if you weren’t invited to one, flip the one that already exists, and walk out with your dignity intact.

For that, Detroiters will always have a special place in their hearts for her.

Victoria Jackson (Editor In Chief)

Victoria Jackson is a lifelong student and sharp-eyed documentarian of all things Detroit, from its rich musical roots and cultural icons to its shifting neighborhoods, storied architecture, and underground legends. With her finger firmly on the pulse of both the city’s vibrant past and its rapidly unfolding future, she brings a deeply personal, historically grounded lens to every piece she writes.

Published on: June 26, 2025