Marilyn had courage in her convictions. Her beliefs in equality spurred her to action in late 1954, when she called up the owner of the Mocambo nightclub and  told him that he had to book Ella Fitzgerald, and not perpetuate the racism of hiring only white performers. Marilyn was one of the few white Hollywood actresses to be appreciated by the black community; the fact that she had suffered in life, had to overcome the adversity of her birth and upbringing, struck a chord. Marilyn once told a reported that she had had an affair with a black man, but because of social expectations they could only meet in private. Publicist Pat Newcomb recalls the last declaration  Marilyn ever gave to a journalist, Richard Meryman of Life Magazine: “What I really want to say: that what the world really needs is a real feeling of kinship. Everybody: stars, laborers, Negroes, Jews, Arabs. We are all brothers. Please don’t make me a joke. End the interview with what I believe.” In 1959, when Marilyn met Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, she expressed her wish that world peace would be achieved.