Crowd of 600 traps police inside the Stonewall Inn; Christopher Street will not clear until dawn

By June 1969, New York City's gay bars had endured years of routine police raids, and the Stonewall Inn — a Genovese-run club tucked into a pair of converted horse stables on Christopher Street — was no exception. At 1:20 a.m. on June 28, Inspector Seymour Pine led eight plainclothes officers inside, lining up patrons to check identification and arresting trans women and drag queens. When a handcuffed butch lesbian was forced out the door, the crowd of 500 to 600 people outside refused to disperse — and the police found themselves barricaded inside the building they had come to shut down. The streets did not clear until 4:00 a.m., and the demonstrations continued for six days, ultimately reshaping the American fight for civil rights…