Barbara-Rose Collins worked multiple jobs and had public assistance until beginning a position as a Business Manager at Wayne State University.

[3] During her early campaign days in 1974, Collins hyphenated her first and middle names, changing from Barbara Rose to Barbara-Rose, to distinguish herself from other candidates.

"[3] In 1988, she lost a primary election to the incumbent U.S. representative for what was then Michigan's 13th congressional district, George W. Crockett, Jr.

When he retired, she won the seat,[4] taking 34 percent of the vote in a crowded eight-way Democratic primary.

[6] Collins's bill was endorsed by the Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues and by 1993 had 90 co-sponsors; however, it failed to pass.

[7] Collins was the subject of a United States House Committee on Ethics inquiry in 1995, under suspicion of 11 instances of misuse of funds.

In her congressional remarks, she stated, "the dehumanizing and degrading conditions of slavery were unnecessarily prolonged for hundreds of thousands of black men, women, and children, because our American government failed to communicate the truth" (2017).