After finishing her studies, Stein returned to Washington and dedicate her life's work to fighting the injustices perpetuated by discrimination in employment, public spaces and schools.

[5] In the late 1930s, deciding that activism was more important, Stein left her career at the Administration to become the chair of the Women's Trade Union League.

In a culminating effort against inflation, Stein joined the Washington Committee for Consumer Protection (WCCP) and organized a citywide strike against the rising wartime prices of food and service.

[6] During her protests with the WCCP, Stein used progressive tactics such as boycotting and picketing in front of the stores that increased their price on meat and milk.

[6] The Coordinating Committee used the claims made by the D.C. Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild about the "lost laws" of 1872, to fuel their direct action protests against segregation.

[9] The Coordinating Committee sought support from the D.C. corporation counsel to uphold the "lost laws" arguing that Thompson's had violated the District of Columbia's Criminal Code by refusing to serve an interracial party.

The case was finally successfully reintroduced in 1953 with the support of President Dwight Eisenhower, a strong civil rights activist, and on June 8, 1953, the court unanimously made the anti-discrimination laws valid.

These anti-discrimination laws, now known as the Civil Rights Act, formally put a legal end to discrimination in Washington, a major victory for the committee.

The Trailway Bus Line's fountain counter incident demonstrated one of Stein's protests that did not result in a positive racial change.

"[12] Stein relates the ironic way in which "democracy was achieved" in a critique appearing in the Washington Post: "It seems to me that this incident is symbolic of the deprivations we whites endure to nourish our ugly prejudices.

She encouraged the councilmen to allow open enrolment in schools and mass transfers, considering that any change would elevate the quality of education for poor children.

She claimed that this three-part strategy worked to raise awareness about discriminatory institutions, and apply social pressure to effect policy change.

[14] Her work with revolutionary and forward thinking activists Mary Church Terrell and Ella Baker, who further developed her philosophy on social justice.

[16] Stein's daughter Eleanor upheld her mother's tradition of resistance in the 1960s leading the Weather Underground, a radical Anti-Vietnam War movement.