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.