Leslie was aware of the consequences of dating a white man because she had done so in her adolescence, and her aunt had advised her not to explore the idea.
“I remember the shock I got once when I was dating a white boy,” Leslie told Ebony in 1967.
“He emailed me a colour photograph of himself.” It was shown to my aunt. He was a handsome young man with lovely hair. I thought he was stunning. But my aunt took one glance at me and began lecturing me. ‘Well, I suppose he’s okay,’ she said, ‘but only for dates, eh, honey? You’ll marry a fine [Black] fella when you’re ready to settle down for good, won’t you?’”
Leslie stated that she continued to visit Grahame after their fortuitous meeting.
“I found myself really falling for him, which was quite surprising given that I was only 21.”
Despite Leslie’s misgivings about her family’s reaction and what it would mean for the two of them if Grahame had to relocate to the United States for Leslie’s work, the two had fallen in love. Grahame visited her in New York after they were engaged for 5 months.
“Knowing my family’s views on mixed marriages, I wanted to know if they would truly accept Grahame and not just tolerate him,” she explained.
Leslie, on the other hand, had nothing to worry about because Grahame was an Australian.
“He lacked the self-consciousness about his situation that many white Americans do.” He readily blended in with all of my friends…because he liked them. And they both liked him, the men and the females.”
Although they didn’t face many of the racial challenges that the rest of the country encountered while living in New York, Leslie said she still received hate mail because of their marriage.
“It wasn’t as difficult as I anticipated,” Leslie remarked of her marriage in an interview with PEOPLE. “I believe the reason is that Grahame was not a white American man.” But, of course, we received mail.
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