Caresse Crosby - Interracial Affair With Canada Lee

Interracial Affair With Canada Lee

In 1934, she had begun a love affair with black actor-boxer Canada Lee despite the threat of miscegenation laws. They had lunch uptown in Harlem at the then new restaurant Franks where they could maintain their secret relationship. By the 1940s, Lee was a Broadway star and featured in the nation-wide run of the play Native Son. But the only restaurant in Washington D.C. where they could eat together was an African restaurant named the Bugazi. Unlike so many of her lovers, he didn't ask for money, even when his nightclub The Chicken Coop had a difficult time. When Crosby's brother Walter expressed his dismay at their relationship during a dinner in the early 1940s, Caresse was offended, and had little contact with Walter over the next 10 years. Crosby and Lee's intimate relationship continued into the mid-1940s and contributed to her world-view. Crosby wrote a never-published play, The Cage, transparently based on their relationship.