In 1947, Bayard Rustin staged a successful all-night sit-in protest in the lobby of the Hamline Hotel in St. Paul Minnesota, after being denied access to a reserved room due to his race. Joined by NAACP leaders and white allies, Rustin's non violence demonstration challenged segregationist practices in a Northern city and exemplified early direct action tactics that influence later civil rights protests.
Although Northern states like Minnesota lacked formal Jim Crow laws, racial discrimination in public accommodations was widespread and socially accepted. Rustin's sit-in at the Hamline Hotel represented a pioneering use of nonviolent direct action to confront this de facto segregation. The support from both Black and white allies—including NAACP leadership and Professor Russel Compton, who had made the reservation for Rustin—illustrated the emergence of interracial coalition-building that would prove critical to the success of the civil rights movement.
"N. Y.GuestSpendsNight in Minn. Hotel Lobby." Afro-American (1893-), Feb 08, 1947. https://login.ezproxy.princeton.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/n-y-guestspendsnight-minn-hotel-lobby/docview/531619881/se-2.
