“It didn’t matter how well I did the project, it was always a D,” he said of one professor’s class. “I had never experienced that type of racism, that way. I said, ‘It’s just not going to be good.’ I really thought about her.”

“Society wasn’t going to let us be together and she be happy. … She’d get tired of the stares; I just thought it was unfair to her,” Howard said of his decision. “Her happiness was the most important thing.”

Howard arranged to meet Myra in the Ohio State student union and ended their relationship. Myra didn’t say anything, but got up and walked away. At the opposite ends of the block, the two turned and looked back at each other and waved. Myra said she felt that meant they would see each other again someday.