While Evanston and Chicago did not have the most oppressive Jim Crow laws in the country, in the post-War era the university and surrounding community remained highly conservative and resistant to changes in traditional social practices. Although as many as five black students were admitted every year, they were excluded from on-campus housing until the 1947 establishment of the euphemistically titled "International House" opened for black women. For example, when future mayor of Evanston, Lorraine H. Morton attended Northwestern in the early 1940s, she was not allowed to live in on-campus accommodations and had to board in a private home nearby. Asbury Hall was purchased in 1949 to likewise house black men, but a group of progressive white students also moved in despite the wishes of Snyder's administration to keep the student housing segregated. Asbury would become a center for civil rights activism with its students organizing letter-writing campaigns to recruit more African American and Jewish American students to Northwestern despite the quotas imposed on these groups by the Admissions office.