Reverend C.T.R. Nelson was a leader in the African American community in Minneapolis and a member of the Citizens’ Committee during the crisis over segregated student housing at the University of Minnesota. Though President Coffey promised Rev. Nelson that the University would integrate the International House in 1942, the President’s staff was soon working to undermine the integration of all other student housing on campus.

Rev. Nelson later moved to Dayton, Ohio, where he acted as minister to McKinley United Methodist Church from 1952–1955.