Season 1, Episode 13 - "A Little Romance"
Blanche tells The Girls about a secret relationship she had in high school with a young man named Benjamin, who asked her to the senior prom. She was nervous about people finding out about them because, as she explains, "certain people were not to mix" back then in the South.
TRUE OR FALSE: Blanche went to her senior prom with a Black boy.
False: He was a Yankee from New Jersey.
Blanche: Now, you have to understand that in those days in the South, a lot of things were still taboo. Certain people were not to mix. So, Benjamin and I had to meet in secret. Oh, we knew if any of the bigots in town found out about us, there'd be a terrible scandal. And then, one day, I had to make a decision. Benjamin invited me to our senior prom. I didn't know what to do. Should I go out with this boy I really cared for, or should I bow to the pressures of an unjust society?
Dorothy: So...what did you do?
Blanche: I walked into that gymnasium on Benjamin's arm. Heads turned, jaws dropped. Why, the room was buzzing all evening. I didn't care. I had followed my heart! And I've never regretted it.
Rose: Oh, Blanche, that's a beautiful story! Oh, that must've taken real courage for both of you.
Dorothy: And it's terrible to think that the two of you were almost kept apart just because Benjamin was Black.
Blanche: Black? Benjamin wasn't Black. He was from New Jersey. I went to my senior prom with a Yankee!
Dorothy: A Yankee? That is incredible! And to think they made a movie about that deadbeat Gandhi while there's a story like this that hasn't been told.
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